THE 


IMPEACHMENT  AND  TRIAL 


OF 


ANDREW  JOHNSON 

SEVENTEENTH    PRESIDENT   OF   THE    UNITED    STATES 


A   HISTORY 


BY 

DAVID   MILLER  DEWITT 


Neto  York 
THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY, 

LONDON :  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
1903 


r.:  &* 


Bf-'SE 


COPYRIGHT  1903,  BY 
THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 


Set  up  and  elcctrotyped,  March,  1903 


PRESS   OF 

THE   NEW   ERA   PRINTING  COMPANY, 
LANCASTER,    PA. 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

THE  author,  by  permission  of  Martha  J.  Patterson, 
a  daughter  of  Andrew  Johnson,  since  deceased,  has 
had  the  benefit  of  examining,  among  the  other  private 
papers  of  the  ex-President,  a  series  of  scrap-books  com 
piled  by  Col.  William  G.  Moore,  one  of  the  private 
secretaries  of  President  Johnson,  from  documents, 
periodicals  and  newspapers  of  the  day;  and,  for  the 
few  statements  made,  and  papers,  letters  and  telegrams 
cited  or  referred  to,  in  the  following  work,  not  other 
wise  authenticated,  these  books  are  the  authority. 

D.  M.  D. 

December  1,  1902. 


CONTENTS. 

INTRODUCTION. 
1SG5-6. 

SECTION      I.     THE  PROBLEM  OF  RECONSTRUCTION 1 

SECTION     II.     THE   MEETING   OF   THE   THIRTY-NINTH    CON 
GRESS    22 

SECTION  III.     THE  FIRST  VETO 42 

SECTION   IV.     THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  TWO-THIRDS 59 

SECTION     V.     COLORADO,  THE  FOURTEENTH  AMENDMENT  AND 

TENNESSEE 87 

SECTION   VI.     THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY 10S 

CHAPTER   I 
PREPARATIONS  FOR  IMPEACHMENT 135 

CHAPTER   II. 
THE  TENURE-OF-OFFICE  AND  RECONSTRUCTION  ACTS 180 

CHAPTER  -III. 
EDWIN  M.  STANTON 232 

CHAPTER   IV, 

THE  DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT  AND  THE  REINSTATE 
MENT  OF  STANTON 288 

CHAPTER   V. 
THE  IMPEACHMENT  OF  THE  PRESIDENT 330 

CHAPTER    VI. 
THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  PRESIDENT 404 

CHAPTER    VII. 
THE  ACQUITTAL ...  515 

CONCLUSION  507 

vii 


THE  IMPEACHMENT  AND  TRIAL 


OF 


PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

T^fl"* 


INTRODUCTION 
SECTION  I 

THE   PROBLEM   OF   RECONSTRUCTION 

THE  impeachment  of  President  Johnson  was  the 
culmination  of  a  struggle  between  the  executive  and 
legislative  branches  of  the  government  of  the  United 
States  over  the  problem  of  what  came  to  be  called 
Reconstruction— a  struggle  which,  ante-dating  John 
son's  own  administration,  troubled  the  administration 
of  his  lamented  predecessor.  At  an  early  period  of 
the  civil  war,  in  portions  of  certain  insurgent  states, 
which  were  swept  clear  of  the  enemy  and  contained 
an  appreciable  number  of  adherents  to  the  cause  of 
the  Union,  frameworks  of  government  were  set  up, 
and  were  recognized  as  such  by  the  authorities  at 
Washington.  The  refusal  of  western  Virginia  to 
abide  by  the  ordinance  of  secession  necessitated  the 
evocation  of  a  phantom  legislature  for  old  Virginia 
(sneered  at  by  Sumner  after  its  work  was  done  as 


2        IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

"the  common  council  of  Alexandria"),*  to  give  the 
consent  required  by  the  Constitution  to  her  dismem 
berment;  and,  in  consequence,  the  old  Dominion  was 
represented  in  1863  by  four  senators  in  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States  as  well  as  by  two  in  the  Senate  of 
the  Confederate  States.  Tennessee,  likewise,  was  rep 
resented  in  both  Houses  of  Congress;  in  the  Senate 
by  Andrew  Johnson  until  he  was  appointed  her  mili 
tary  governor  in  March,  1862;  in  the  House  until 
March,  1863;  and  Louisiana  sent  two  representatives 
from  recovered  districts,  who  were  admitted  to  seats 
in  February,  1863. 

But,  notwithstanding  these  precedents  set  with  vir 
tual  unanimity,  when  President  Lincoln  sent  to  the 
Congress  his  annual  message  of  December,  1863,  out 
lining  the  plan  of  reconstruction  he  purposed  to  fol 
low,  together  wTith  his  proclamation  of  amnesty  putting 
the  plan  into  actual  operation,  the  radical  wing  of  the 
dominant  party  inaugurated  an  opposition  so  extensive 
and  so  fierce  as,  at  one  time,  to  put  in  jeopardy  his 
re-election,  if  not  his  renomination.  The  plan  had 
two  feature^ :  first,  amnesty  to  all  insurgents  (with  a 
few  specified  exceptions)  who  would  take  an  oath  to 
support  the  Constitution,  the  Union  and  the  acts  of 
Congress  and  proclamations  of  the  President  concern 
ing  slavery;  second,  recognition  by  the  Executive  De 
partment  of  the  United  States  of  any  republican  form 
of  government  which  might  be  established  in  any  of 
the  eleven  seceded  states  by  insurgents  who  should 
have  taken  the  amnesty  oath  and  were  qualified  voters 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  38th  Cong.,  p.  84(}. 


THE   PROBLEM   OP  RECONSTRUCTION  3 

in  1860:  provided  they  were  not  less  in  number  than 
one-tenth  of  the  votes  cast  in  the  state  that  year.  The 
opposition,  passing  by  the  amnesty  as  beyond  their 
reach,  fastened  upon  the  other  feature  of  the  plan, 
seeing  that,  without  the  co-operation  of  the  legislative 
department  in  admitting  senators  and  representatives, 
it  was  impossible  of  being  carried  out.  Indeed,  they 
declared  that  the  whole  matter  of  reconstruction  rested 
exclusively  within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  legislative 
branch,  and  that  it  was  not  much  better  than  usurpa 
tion  on  the  part  of  the  executive  to  initiate,  or  meddle 
in  any  way  with,  the  process.  Lincoln,  however,  per 
sisted  in  pushing  his  plan,  and  governments  were  estab 
lished  in  the  states  of  Arkansas  and  Louisiana,  whose 
delegates  were  admitted  by  the  National  Convention 
which  renominated  Lincoln  and,  for  Vice-President, 
nominated  Andrew  Johnson  of  Tennessee  despite  the 
vehement  protest  of  Thaddeus  Stevens  that  he  was  an 
alien.  In  the  last  hours  of  the  session,  the  Congress 
sent  to  the  President  a  reconstruction  measure  which 
the  majority  had  concocted  with  difficulty  because  of 
dissensions  in  its  ranks,  but  the  President,3  withholding 
his  consent,  adopted  the  extraordinary  expedient  of 
submitting  the  congressional  plan  to  the  insurgent 
states  not  yet  reorganized,  for  them  to  accept  if  they 
preferred  it  to  his  own.  Lincoln's  triumph  in  the 
election  was  followed  by  the  reappearance  of  senators 
and  representatives  from  Arkansas  and  Louisiana  and 
the  rapid  reorganization  of  civil  government  in  Ten 
nessee;  and  nothing  prevented  the  readmission  of  the 
two  former  states,  to  be  silently  followed  by  the  read- 


4        IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

mission  of  the  latter,  but  the  filibustering  tactics  of 
Sumner,  Wilson  and  Wade,  with  three  other  radical 
senators,  aided  by  an  adroit  move  of  Sherman  that 
prevented  a  vote  at  the  close  of  the  short  session.* 

The  sudden  collapse  of  the  rebellion  so  soon  after 
the  second  inauguration  and  the  dispersion  of  the" 
Congress,  left  Lincoln,  for  the  moment,  absolute  master 
of  the  whole  field;  and,  during  the  few  weeks  he  had 
yet  to  live,  he  made  no  uncertain  record  of  what  he 
meant  to  do.  On  the  eleventh  of  April,  1865,  in  his  last 
speech  to  the  people  of  Washington  he  suspended  his 
congratulations  on  the  surrender  of  Lee  to  coi^fnend 
his  Louisiana  experiment,  announce  the  unanimity  of 
his  Cabinet  on  his  reconstruction  policy  and  express 
a  modest  hope  that  suffrage  might  be  granted  to  the 
intelligent,  and  the  Union  soldiers,  among  the  negroes. 
Once  more,  on  the  fourteenth,  at  the  last  meeting  of  his 
Cabinet,  he  directed  the  extension  of  his  plan  so  as 
to  take  in  the  recovered  state  of  North  Carolina,  and, 
with  words  of  charity  even  for  the  chiefs  of  the  over 
thrown  Confederacy  on  his  lips,  he  went  forth  unwit 
tingly  to  his  death. 

The  cessation  of  the  war  and  the  disbandment  of  the 
armies  of  the  Confederacy  widened  the  scope  of  the 
problem  from  portions  comparatively  small  of  four 
of  the  insurgent  states  containing  minorities  compara 
tively  feeble,  to  the  area  of  the  whole  eleven  with  their 
entire  population.  The  struggle,  in  consequence,  be 
came  much  more  formidable  and  vital  under  Johnson, 
and  the  problem,  ceasing  to  be  speculative  or  experi- 

*  Glolc,  2d  Sess.  38th  Cong.,  pp.  1107-11,  1129. 


THE   PROBLEM  OF  RECONSTRUCTION         ,  5 

mental  in  any  degree,  demanded  an  immediate  and 
practicable  solution.  It  is  highly  improbable  that  even 
Lincoln,  with  all  the  prestige  with  which  his  re-election 
and  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  had  crowned  him, 
could  have  extended  his  plan  over  the  entire  subju 
gated  section  without  causing  a  dangerous  if  not  fatal 
schism  in  his  party.  ^Ifnd  Andrew  Johnson  was  not 
Abraham  Lincoln.  Lincoln  had  been  a  Republican 
from  the  origin  of  that  party  and  twice  chosen  its 
leader.  Johnson  had  been  a  life-long  Democrat  and 
slave-holder.  Nothing  but  his  gallant  stand  in  the 
Senate,  when  solitary  and  alone  he  faced  his  colleagues 
from  the  South  in  den  QjinckigL  ..secession  as  treason, 
could  have  redeemed  such  a  record  in  the  eyes  of  Re 
publicans,  and  it  was  only.  his 


course  iri^rmejd^ppositiojLlo  the  rebelliojuthat-^rQUght 
about.  Ids  norm  nation^  f  oiL-the^  Vice^Presidency  as  a 
shrjwol_sirolve  to  sppnra  flip  support,  of  th^  War  Tjg]]lp- 
crats  of  the  North  and  the  Union^nienjcJJiis  state  and 
section.  He  came  to  the  presidency  under  the^  red 
cloud  of  the  assassination^—  a  crime  that  exasperated  the 
Northern  people  to.  a..vjjidiciiveiiesaxaaching--the  point 
of  frelizy.  By  the  secessionists  he  was  hated  as  an 
from  his  /x$Yjij3aj:ty,  a  traitor  toji[s__own_sec- 
and  an  oj^r^asDxaiOiis_^wiL  state.  The  leaders 
of  the  parj3z~-o£~4t*s  ndo.piion  he  had  disgusted  by  a 
scandalous  exhibition^  of  IiimseH^aHTus  Inauguration" 
as_..yiee=£resident.  Lincoln,  the  radical  wing  of  his 
party  had  been  most  reluctant  to  assail,  and  the  ma 
jority  appeared  content  to  follow  his  lead.  Not  so 
with  Johnson.  At  first,  indeed,  because  of  his  fierce 


6        IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

denunciations  of  treason  and  traitors,  many  influential 
radicals  were  inclined  to  rejoice  at  his  accession.  The 
day  after  Lincoln's  death,  the  committee  on  the  con 
duct  of  the  war  waited  upon  him  and  amid  their  con 
gratulations,  senator  Wade  was  heard  to  exclaim: 
"Johnson,  we  have  faith  in  you.  By  the  gods,  there 
will  be  no  more  trouble  in  running  the  government." 
But  such  a  burst  of  feeling,  by  its  very  nature,  could 
not  but  be  transitory.  No  threats  to  make  treason 
odious  would  avail  to  condone  an  independent  policy 
on  the  far  more  vital  question  of  reconstruction ;  and 
it  needed  no  inspired  prophet  to  foretell  that,  if  John 
son  followed  Lincoln's  plan,  the  dominant  party  in 
the  Congress  would  open  a  fight  upon  him  compared 
with  which  the  preceding  struggle  was  but  a  skirmish. 
The  pressing  question  was :  How  shall  the  work  of 
the  soldier  be  completed  by  the  restoration  of  the 
Union  for  which  he  fought?  To  this  question  there 
were  two  answers  logically  coherent.  One — which  we 
may  call  the  constitutional  solution— had  for  its  basis 
the  proposition  that,  as  long  as  the  Constitution  itself 
endures,  every  one  of  the  United  States  is  indestruc 
tible  either  by  the  acts  of  its  people  or  by  the  power 
of  the  federal  government;  that  the  territory  known 
by  the  historical  name  of  a  particular  state — e.  g., 
South  Carolina  or  Virginia— having  a  definite  geo 
graphical  boundary,  must  ever  be  known  by  that  name 
and  described  by  that  boundary  (unless  under  an  ex 
press  provision  of  the  Federal  Constitution  the  state 
consent  to  its  own  dismemberment)  ;  that  the  sover- 

*  Julian's    Political    Recollections,    p.    257. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  RECONSTRUCTION  7 

eignty  of  every  single   state  over  its  own  affairs  is 
in'  its  people  and^caTTTTOrn5e  for- 


f  cited  to^tlie  other  states  or  to  the  general  government 
(whatever  may  be  the  case  with  a  foreign  power)  by 
any  act  of  its  people  ;  that  the  gejiexaJ-government  has 
the  p&wer  to  enforce  upon  the  citizens  of  any  state 
only  that  supremacy  delegateiLto  it  by  Hie  states,  and 
when  that  is  done  the  power  is  exhausted;  and  that 
no  resistance  of  the  people  of  a  state—  much  less  of  a 
portion  of  them—  can  give  the  federal  government 
any  right  to  go  beyond  such  enforcement  and  invade 
those  functions  of  sovereignty  resident  in  the  state  or 
the  people,  which  neither  has  ever  delegated  or  can 
ever  forfeit.  Granting  these  premises  it  followed, 
that,  as  soon  as  the  insurrection  of  the  inhabitants  of 
any  state  was  suppressed  or  was  abandoned  and  the 
federal  government  hacTre^laced  its  officers,  retaken 
its  property  and  set  in  moHojo^jheeni^fcement  of  its 
laws;  its  task  was  accomplishedT^^Th^Teliabilitation 
of  the  state  itself,  if  rehabilitation  can  be  said  to  be 
necessary  at  all,  was  the  exclusive  work  of  the  people 
of  the  state;  they  were  to  bring  back  the  state  into  its 
constitutional  orbit  from  which  the  illegitimate  attrac 
tion  of  secession,  for  the  moment,  caused  it  to  swerve. 
This  solution  was  the  only  one  in  the  mind  of  the 
Northern  people  at  the  outbreak  of  the  war.  It  in 
spired  the  letters  of  Seward  to  our  ministers  abroad. 
It  underlay  the  pledge  the  two  Houses  of  Congress 
made  after  the  disaster  at  Bull  Run.  It  was  the  ideal 
of  Lincoln  before  the  Emancipation  Proclamation7~and~ 
the  single  modification  made  necessary  by 


8       IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

that  paper.  General  Sherman  took  it  for  granted 
when  he  stipulated  with  General  Johnston  that  the 
"Executive  of  the  United  States"  should  "recognize" 
"the  several  State  Governments"  on  their  officers  and 
legislators  "taking  the  oath  to  the  U.  S.  Constitution." 

The  other  strictly  logical  solution— which  may  be 
called  the  extra-constitutional—was  based  upon  the 
proposition  that  as  soon  as  the  insurrection  of  the 
Southern  people  assumed  proportions  of  sufficient  mag 
nitude  to  entitle  its  participants  to  the  rights  of  belli 
gerents,  the  contest  became  a  civil  war  between  two 
de  facto  governments;  and  the  Southern  states,  being 
subjugated  by  tlie  power  of  the  federal  government, 
became  conquered  lands  and  people,  with  no  right  to 
name,  boundaries,  territory,  much  less  statehood. 
That,  therefore,  the  United  States  government  might 
rule  over  these  overthrown  states  as  one  wide  waste 
or  as  eleven  distinct  territories,  as  the  government 
might  choose,  and,  at  any  future  period,  might  admit 
them  to  the  Union  as  states,  with  name,  boundaries 
and  constitutions  such  as  the  conqueror  might  pre 
scribe;  or  the  government  might  hold  them  by  the 
naked  power  of  the  sword  until,  having  been  carved 
into  the  shape  the  federal  authority  deemed  safe  and 
desirable,  they  might  be  dragged  back  into  the  Union, 
like  bound  and  mutilated  captives  by  the  heels.  This 
was  the  theory  of  Thaddeus  Stevens,  enunciated  by 
him  as  far  back  as  1862,  and  to  which  he  had  clung 
through  every  vicissitude  of  the  war.  v 

Another  and  companion  theory  to  this  of  Stevens 
was  thought  by  some  to  combine  the  advantage  of 


THE   PROBLEM  OF  RECONSTRUCTION  9 

steering  clear  of  the  offensive  dogma  of  state  suicide 
and  still  accomplishing  the  same  result.  This  was 
the  Sumner  theory,  which  the  statesman  of  that  name 
had  advocated  from  the  outset  of  the  war.  It  rested 
for  its  sole  basis  on  the  alleged  political  equality  of 
the  freedman  with  the  white  man.  The  inevitable  re 
sult  of  the  appeal  to  arms  (so  it  was  reasoned  out) 
must  be  the  emancipation  of  the  slave;  and  the  in 
evitable  result  of  emancipation  must  be  the  elevation 
of  the  blacks  to  the  same  level  of  civil  and  political 
rights  as  that  occupied  by  the  whites.  Therefore,  no 
state  government  could  be  republican  in  form  whose 
constitution  denied  the  freedmen  the  right  of  suffrage 
simply  on  account  of  color  or  race;  and,  under  the 
provision  of  the  Federal  Constitution  obligating  the 
United  States  to  guarantee  to  every  state  a  republican 
form  of  government,  the  United  States  were  bound 
to  see  to  it  that  no  state  should  resume  its  relations 
with  the  Union  with  a  constitution  imposing  any  re 
strictions  of  suffrage  upon  negroes  which  did  not  apply 
equally  to  white  men. 

Now,  no  reasonable  being  could  have  expected  An 
drew  Johnson  with  his  well-known  antecedents  to  look 
upon  either  the  Stevens  or  the  Sumner  solution  with 
favor.  In  fact,  his  position  on  both  had  been  already 
publicly  defined.  As  long  before  as  November,  1863, 
in  a  letter  or  telegram  to  Montgomery  Blair,  then 
Postmaster-General,*  he  had  warned  President  Lincoln 
against  "the  proposition  of  states  relapsing  into  terri 
tories  and  held  as  such, ' '  and  he  had,  again  and  again, 

*  McPherson's  Hist,  of  Reconstruction,  p.  109. 


10     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

while  expressing  a  hope  that  the  suffrage  might  ulti 
mately  be  granted  to  the  literate  and  taxpayers  among 
the  f  reedmen,  declared  that  the  regulation  of  the  matter 
was  confided  exclusively  to  every  state  for  itself.  Be 
sides,  the  Stevens  theory  had  been  pointedly  condemned 
by  the  convention  that  nominated  him  for  Vice-Presi 
dent  and  by  the  people  who  elected  him  to  that  office; 
and,  at  the  period  when  he  was  called  upon  to  act  on 
the  problem,  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  majority 
of  the  Eepublican  party  was  opposed  to  negro  suffrage 
qualified  or  unqualified.  On  the  other  hand,  the  pre 
cedents  established  under  Lincoln's  administration  in 
setting  up  Union  state  governments  in  Virginia,  Ten 
nessee,  Arkansas  arid  Louisiana  over  against  the  old 
state  governments  gone  over  to  secession,  rendered 
the  constitutional  solution  impossible  of  complete  appli 
cation.  The  assumption  that  the  old  state  authorities 
had  in^apacitate^theinselvesT)y  treason  from  partici- 
patm^fjnjiiajv^rj^  Lin 

coln  may  have  had  a  lingering  idea  that  these^were  the 
most  natural  and  logical  starting  points  for  the  re-estab- 
lis-hment  of  relations  between  the  states  and  the  Union, 
when  immediately  after  the  capture  of  Richmond  he 
permitted  the  reassembling  of  the  legislature  of  Vir 
ginia;  but  the  rough  repudiation  of  this  movement  by 
Stanton  caused  him  to  beat  a  hasty  retreat.  And  this 
appears  to  have  been  the  only  departure,  if  departure 
it  was,  from  the  general  belief  that  secession  had  shat 
tered  the  governments  of  the  seceding  states  and  va 
cated  all  their  offices.  This  assumption,  made  without 
reflection,  was  founded  on,  error.  Forfeiture  of  office 


THE   PROBLEM  OF  RECONSTRUCTION          11 

did  not  follow  from  the  mere  notoriety  of  the  offence 
in  the  case  of  the  authorities  of  a  commonwealth,  any 
more  than  forfeiture  of  life  and  property  in  the  case 
of  an  individual.  Conviction  of  treason  must  first 
take  place  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other,  and,  as  was 
subsequently  shown,  conviction  was  impossible.  But, 
erroneous  though  it  was,  after  the  precedents  made  by 
Lincoln  during  the  war  when  a  rival  government  was 
the  only  recourse,  the  assumption  was  inevitable  and 
constituted  a  fundamental  flaw  in  the  plan  of  the  Presi 
dent  which  his  adversaries  were  not  slow  to  take  ad-  ^ 
vantage  of.  What  is  the  material  difference,  they 
asked,  between  the  suicide  of  a  state  and  the  suicide 
of  a  state  government?  "It  matters  little, "  said 
Stevens,  whether  they  are  "conquered  territories77  or 
are  "only  dead  as  to  all  national  and  political  action, 
.  .  .  whether  they  are  not  out  of  the  Union  but  only 
dead  carcasses  lying  within  the  Union."  And,  said 
others,  if  the  federal  government  had  the  right  to  inter 
fere  to  regulate  the  suffrage  in  the  case  of  delegates 
to  a  convention  to  make  a  new  constitution  for  a  state 
that  has  forfeited  the  old,  why  not  interfere  to  some 
purpose  and  dictate  the  franchise  provision? 

At  the  Cabinet  meeting  held  by  President  Lincoln 
on  Friday,  the  last  day  of  his  life,  Stanton  brought 
forward  a  written  project  for  the  military  government 
of  both  Virginia  and  North  Carolina  as  one  district 
until  such  time  as  elections  for  delegates  to  frame  con 
stitutions  for  the  respective  states  and  the  adoption 
of  those  constitutions  should  have  taken  place.  His 

*  Globe,  1st  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.   72. 


12     IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

avowed  object  in  thus  presenting  his  views  at  so  early 
a  date  was  to  satisfy  the  President  that  there  was  no 
necessity  to  employ  the  old  state  structures  as  nuclei 
of  restoration.  More  than  one  member  of  the  Cabinet 
objected  to  the  joining  together  of  the  two  states  in  one 
district,  on  the  ground  that  such  union  ignored  the 
existing  Pierpont  government  of  Virginia.  The  Presi 
dent,  yielding  to  the  force  of  this  objection,  directed 
the  Secretary  of  War  to  divide  his  project  and  submit 
at  a  future  meeting  separate  plans  for  the  two  states 
—the  one  for  Virginia  to  recognize  the  Pierpont  gov 
ernment.*  i  Johnson  made  no  change  of  Cabinet  offi 
cers,  acquiescing  even  in  the  appointment  of  James 
Harlan  in  the  place  of  Usher,  which  was  not  to  take 
effect  until  the  fifteenth  of  May,  and,  especially  as  there 
was  no  alternative,  he  cannot  be  blamed  for  following 
in  the  footsteps  of  his  illustrious  predecessor.  As 
early  as  the  day  succeeding  Lincoln's  death— Sunday, 
April  16th— at  the  first  meeting  of  the  Cabinet  under 
the  new  administration,  the  Secretary  of  War  stated 
that,  in  accordance  with  the  directions  of  the  late  Presi 
dent,  he  had  divided  his  project  of  government  sub 
mitted  the  Friday  before,  but  copies  were  not  yet 
ready ;  and  on  this  ground  the  matter  was  postponed,  t 
In  the  meantime  the  governors  of  some  of  the  lately 
insurgent  states,  e.  g.,  McGrath  of  South  Carolina, 
Brown  of  Georgia,  Clark  of  Mississippi,  had  called 

*  "  Lincoln  and  Johnson,"  art.  in  Galaxy  of  April,  1872,  by  Gideon 
Welles,  pp.  526-7;  cf.  Stanton's  testimony  in  Impeachment  Investiga 
tion  (1867),  p.  401  et  seq. 

f  Welles,  ut  sup. 


THE   PROBLEM  OF  RECONSTRUCTION          13 

their  respective  legislatures  together  to  resume  the 
normal  relation  of  their  states  to  the  Union  as  a  con 
sequence  of  their  submission  to  the  event  of  the  war. 
Instead  of  welcoming  these  overtures,  as  under  other 
circumstances  and  influenced  by  other  considerations 
might  have  been  done,  the  Secretary  of  War  ordered 
the  major  generals  in  command  in  their  respective 
localities  to  disperse  the  legislatures  and  to  drive  the 
governors  out  of  office. 

At  length,  on  the  fifth  day  of  May,  the  President 
directed  Stanton  to  send  copies  of  his  divided  project 
to  every  member  of  the  Cabinet,  preparatory  to  a  spe 
cial  meeting  called  for  Monday,  the  eighth,  expressly  for 
its  consideration;  and,  accordingly,  on  that  date  Stan- 
ton's  plan  for  the  reconstruction  of  Virginia  alone  was 
laid  before  the  President  and  the  Cabinet.  In  compli 
ance  with  the  directions  of  the  late  President,  the  Sec 
retary  recognized  Francis  Pierpont  as  governor;  but 
only  to  "request  him  to  take  measures  for  the  re-estab 
lishment  of  the  state  government  and  the  election  of 
state  officers"—  in  other  words  to  accomplish  the  over 
throw  of  his  own  government — and  that  too  under  the 
direction  and  control  of  the  Department  of  War.  In 
respect  to  both  these  features,  the  project  was  entirely 
altered  by  the  action  of  the  Cabinet.  It  was  put  into 
the  shape  of  an  Executive  Order  of  nine  sections.  The 
first  forbade  any  recognition  of  the  Confederate  or 
old  state  government  within  the  limits  of  Virginia; 
the  following  seven  provided  for  the  resumption  of 
the  federal  authority,  offices  and  property  within  the 
state;  and  the  last  contained  a  full  recognition  of  the 


14     IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

government  of  Pierpont  and  pledged  the  aid  of  the 
United  States  in  all  lawful  measures  he  might  take  for 
the  extension  and  administration  of  the  state  govern 
ment  throughout  the  geographical  limits  of  such  state; 
and  in  this  shape  the  Executive  Order  was  promulgated 
next  day. 

So  far  no  difficulty  and  little  dissension  had  been 
encountered.  The  case  was  one  where,  before  the  close 
of  hostilities,  the  loyal  population  had  attempted  with 
more  or  less  success  to  reconstruct  the  state.  The 
cases  of  Arkansas,  Louisiana  and  Tennessee  were  very 
similar  and  in  such  cases  the  present  administration 
had  merely  to  follow  precedents.  An  equivocal  sug 
gestion  had  been  made  on  two  occasions,  one  under  the 
late,  and  one  under  the  present,  administration;  but 
its  author  on  both  occasions  had  given  it  but  feeble 
support  and  on  both  occasions  it  had  been  unanimously 
rejected.  But  on  the  ninth  was  taken  up  the  project 
for  the  reconstruction  of  the  state  of  North  Carolina; 
an  entirely  new  case  in  the  important  respect  that  no 
loyal  government  had  been  set  up  while  the  war  was 
in  progress,  and,  consequently,  either  the  old  state  gov 
ernment  must  be  recognized  or  the  work  of  reconstruc 
tion  begun  from  the  bottom.  Consequently,  it  was 
considered  a  measure  of  cardinal  importance,  to  be  fol 
lowed  as  a  model  in  the  reconstruction  of  the  remaining 
insurrectionary  states.  The  draft  submitted  provided, 
first,  for  the  appointment  of  a  military  governor  to 
preserve  order  and  to  aid  the  inhabitants  of  the  state 
in  holding  an  election  of  delegates  to  a  convention  to 
frame  a  constitution.  It  then  followed  the  Virginia 


THE   PROBLEM  OF  RECONSTRUCTION          15 

order  in  directing  the  several  departments  of  the  fed 
eral  executive  to  proceed  in  the  enforcement  of  the 
federal  authority  throughout  the  state.  Then  came  a 
provision,  on  its  face  unobjectionable,  that  "loyal  citi 
zens  of  the  United  States  residing  within  the  State  of 
North  Carolina, "  on  a  day  named,  "may  elect  members 
of  a  state  convention."  The  Cabinet,  after  substi 
tuting  the  word  "provisional"  for  the  word  "military" 
in  the  title  of  the  governor,  proceeded  to  the  consid 
eration  of  this  apparently  harmless  clause.  Welles, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  asked  what  was  meant  by 
the  phrase  "loyal  citizens,"  and,  Stanton  admitting 
that  the  intent  was;  to  include  blacks  as  well  as  whites, 
at  once  the  wlioTe  subject  of  negro  suffrage  was  thrust 
upon  the  board.  It  appears  that  as  early  as  the  even 
ing  of  Sunday,  the  sixteenth  of  April,  a  private  con 
sultation  was  held  by  Stanton  with  such  advanced 
spirits  of  the  Republican  party  as  Sumner,  Dawes  and 
Col  fax,  of  which  Welles  happened  to  be  an  unwilling 
witness  for  a  part  of  the  time,  and  at  this  meeting,  in 
face  of  the  fact  that  under  the  foregoing  administra 
tion  it  had  been  decided  both  by  the  Executive  and 
the  Congress  that  suffrage  was  a  matter  exclusively 
of  state  regulation,  Stanton  had  allowed  Sumner  and 
Coif  ax  to  interpolate  into  his  project  of  government 
the  clause  in  question,  possibly  in  the  hope  that  the 
ambiguous  phrase  might  pass  muster,  leaving  its  con 
struction  to  himself,  or,  it  may  be,  to  test  his  colleagues 
and  the  President  on  the  subject  it  embraced.  How 
ever,  when  its  true  intent  was  thus  disclosed  Stanton 
deprecated  any  preliminary  discussion  and  suggested 


16     IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT   JOHNSON 

that  each  member  should  say  whether  the  negro  should 
vote  in  North  Carolina.  A  vote  was  then  taken,  all  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet  being  present  but  Seward,  who 
was  still  disabled  from  his  wounds  and  illness.  In 
favor  of  retaining  the  provision  were  the  Secretary  of 
War  (Stanton),  the  Postmaster-General  (Dennison), 
and  the  Attorney-General  (Speed).  Against,  on  the 
ground  that  the  federal  government  had  no  power  over 
the  question,  were  -the  Secretaries  of  the  Treasury 
(McCulloch),  of  the  Navy  (Welles)  and  of  the  Interior 
(Usher)— an  equal  division.  The  President,  express 
ing  no  opinion,  took  the  paper  and  the  meeting  was 
over.* 

When  the  subject  was  again  brought  before  the 
Cabinet  (May  24th),  Seward  was  able  to  attend  and 
Harlan  had  taken  the  place  of  Usher.  The  President 
laid  before  them  his  own  plan  of  reconstruction,  which 
followed  step  by  step  that  of  Lincoln,  differing  only 
in  unimportant  details.  \JEirst,  there  was  a  proclama 
tion  of  general  amnesty  to  all  insurgents  who  should 
take  the  oath  prescribed  in  the  paper,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  certain  high  officers  in  the  army  and  navy  of 
the  late  Confederacy  and  high  civil  officials  in  the  Con 
federate  and  state  governments  and  of  all  persons 
who  had  voluntarily  participated  in  the  rebellion,  the 
value  of  whose  property  exceeded  $20,000 — an  excep 
tion  not  in  Lincoln's  proclamation  and  owing  its  inser 
tion  to  Johnson's  belief  that  secession  was  the  special 
work  of  the  men  of  wealth  in  the  South.  Second,  a 

*  Welles,  ut  sup.,  and  second  paper  in  Galaxy  for  May,  1872,  at  p. 
606. 


THE   PROBLEM  OF  RECONSTRUCTION          17 

proclamation  having  particular  reference  only  to  the 
state  of  North  Carolina  but  designed  to  be  a  formal, 
public,  explanatory  pronunciamento  of  the  plan  to  be 
followed  as  to  all  the  other  states  in  a  similar  condi 
tion.  This  paper  appointed  William  W.  Holden  Pro 
visional  Governor  of  the  state  and  declared  his  duty 
to  be  to  prescribe  rules  for  the  assembling  of  a  con 
vention  "composed  of  delegates  to  be  chosen  by  that 
portion  of  the  people  of  the  state  who  are  loyal  to  the 
United  States,  and  no  others,  for  the  purpose  of  alter 
ing  or  amending  the  constitution  thereof";  endowing 
him  with  authority  to  enable  such  loyal  people  to  re 
store  the  state  to  its  constitutional  relation  with  the 
federal  government  and  to  present  such  a  republican 
form  of  government  as  will  entitle  the  state  to  the 
guarantee  of  the  United  States  therefor.  Then  came 
the  decisive  proviso— viz:  that  in  choosing  delegates 
no  person  shall  be  qualified  as  an  elector,  or  eligible 
as  a  delegate,  unless  (1)  he  shall  have  taken  the  oath 
prescribed  by  the  Amnesty  Proclamation,  and  (2)  has 
the  qualifications  prescribed  by  the  ^constitution  and 
laws  of  North  Carolina  at  the  date  of  her  secession. 
The  convention,  however,  or  the  legislature  thereafter 
assembled  "will  prescribe  the  qualifications  of  electors 
and  the  eligibility  of  persons  to  office"— "a  power  the 
people  of  the  several  states  composing  the  Federal 
Union  have  rightfully  exercised  from  the  origin  of  the 
government  to  the  present  time." 

To  this  plan  the  Cabinet,  so  far  as  it  appears,  made 
no  objection.      The  Amnesty,  the  exceptions  in  which 

*  McPherson's  Reconstruction,  pp.  9,  11. 

2 


18     IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT   JOHNSON 

were  more  sweeping  than  Lincoln's,  no  doubt,  was 
unanimously  approved.  Those  members  who  on  the 
ninth  seemed  to  favor  the  introduction  of  negro  suffrage 
in  some  shape  or  form,  though  they  were  now  reinforced 
by  Harlan,  made  no  remonstrance.  Stanton,  having 
done  his  duty  to  his  secret  friends,  thought  he  had 
gone  far  enough  in  putting  forward  their  ticklish  pro 
posal  and  submitted  without  a  word.  He  subsequently 
testified  before  the  Impeachment  committee :  l  i  The  ob 
jection  of  the  President  to  throwing  the  franchise  open 
to  the  colored  people  appeared  to  be  fixed,  and  I  think 
every  member  of  the  Cabinet  assented  to  the  arrange 
ment  as  it  was  specified  in  the  proclamation  relating 
to  North  Carolina."* 

The  proclamation  in  her  case  was  followed  at  short 
intervals  by  similar  measures  in  the  case  of  every  one 
of  the  six  Southern  states  in  the  same  situation,  viz: 
Mississippi  on  the  13th,  Georgia  and  Texas  on  the  17th, 
Alabama  on  the  21st,  and  South  Carolina  on  the  30th 
of  June,  and  Florida  on  the  13th  of  July.f  So  that, 
in  less  than  two  months,  proceedings  had  been  initiated 
by  the  new  administration  for  the  complete  restoration 
of  every  seceding  state  to  the  Union;  in  the  cases  of 
Virginia,  Arkansas,  Louisiana  and  Tennessee,  by  recog 
nizing  the  state  governments  raised  up  in  the  midst 
of  war  and  supported  by  Lincoln;  in  the  cases  of  the 
remaining  seven  by  setting  forth  the  process  by  which 
their  people  returning  to  loyalty  might  raise  up  gov 
ernments  for  themselves.  During  the  fall,  under  the 

*  Impeachment  Investigation  (1867),  p.  401. 
f  McPherson's  Reconstruction,  p.  12. 


0\ 


THE   PROBLEM  OP  RECONSTRUCTION          19 

guidance  of  provisional  governors— Union  men,  more 
or  less  of  the  type  of  Andrew  Johnson— the  citizens 
of  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama 
and  Mississippi  (five  of  the  seven  states  unrecon 
structed  under  Lincoln),  having  taken  the  oath  with 
hopeful  unanimity,  held  conventions,  annulled  the 
ordinances  of  secession;  then  selected  governors,  mem 
bers  of  the  legislature  and  representatives  in  Congress ; 
inaugurated  the  new  state  governments;  by  their  new 
legislatures  appointed  senators,  of  the  United  States, 
and,  with  the  exception  ^Mississippi,  ratified  the 
thirteenth  amendment  to  me  federal  Constitution  abol 
ishing  slavery.  Irritating  embarrassments,  it  is  true, 
were  encountered  by  the  administration.  In  one  or 
two  states  a  reluctance  was  manifested  to  repudiate  the 
debt  incurred  in  the  support  of  the  insurrection.  Acts 
were  passed  for  the  purpose  of  guarding  the  whites 
against  apprehended  pauperism  or  savage  outbreaks 
of  the  blacks,  which  imperiled  the  newly- won  freedom 
and  civil  rights  of  the  latter.  There  was  a  natural 
disposition  to  lament  the  lost  cause  and  to  glorify  its 
leaders.  Petitions  were  circulated  for  the  repeal  of 
the  test  oath  which  stood  in  the  way  of  those  leaders 
being  admitted  to  seats  in  Congress,  and,  in  some  in 
stances,  men  were  sent  to  the  Senate  or  to  the  House 
known  to  be  incapacitated  to  serve.  The  broad  scope 
of  the  exceptions  to  the  Amnesty  frequently  hindered 
the  process  of  reorganization,  and,  in  some  cases,' 
brought  proceedings  to  a  standstill.  Special  pardons 
from  Washington  fell  thick  and  fast.  In  short,  it  was 
demonstrated  now  for  the  first  time,  as  it  continued 


•  Y / 


20     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

to  be  demonstrated  years  after  this  period,  that  it  was 
practicably  impossible  to  carry  on  any  kind  of  respec 
table  government  in  these  states  without  the  help  of 
men  who  had  been  the  leaders  of  their  people  in  the 
war.  To  William  M.  Sharkey,  the  provisional  gov 
ernor  of  Mississippi  whose  convention  was  the  earliest 
held— meeting  on  the  fourteenth  of  August— President 
Johnson  sent  a  telegram  the  next  day,  making  a  sugges 
tion  which  shows  how  fully  awake  he  was  to  the  designs 
of  the  radical  element  of  the  party: 

' '  If  you  could  extend  the  elective  franchise  to  all  persons 
of  color  who  can  read  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States 
in  English  and  write  their  names,  and  to  all  persons  of 
color  who  own  real  estate  valued  at  not  less  than  two  hun 
dred  and  fifty  dollars  and  pay  taxes  thereon,  you  would 
completely  disarm  the  adversary  and  set  an  example  the 
other  States  will  follow. 

' '  This  you  can  do  with  perfect  safety,  and  you  thus  place 
the  Southern  States,  in  reference  to  free  persons  of  color, 
upon  the  same  basis  with  the  free  States.  I  hope  and 
trust  your  convention  will  do  this,  and,  as  a  consequence, 
the  radicals,  who  are  wild  upon  negro  franchise,  will  be 
completely  foiled  in  their  attempt  to  keep  the  Southern 
States  from  their  relations  to  the  Union  by  not  accepting 
their  senators  and  representatives."* 

If  this  shrewd  suggestion  had  been  adopted  by  the 
Mississippi  convention  and  followed,  as  in  likelihood 
it  would  have  been,  by  the  conventions  of  the  otiier 
states,  the  battle  of  reconstruction  either  would  never 
have  been  joined  or  victory  would  have  perched 

*  McPherson's  id.,  p.  19. 


THE  PROBLEM  OF  RECONSTRUCTION          21 

on  the  banner  of  the  Administration.  It  was  identical 
with  the  suggestion  of  Lincoln  in  his  letter  to  Hahn, 
the  governor  of  Louisiana,*  and  with  the  hope  he  ex 
pressed  in  his  last  speech  to  the  citizens  of  Washing 
ton.  And  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  on  the  issue  pre 
sented  by  this  overture  the  President  represented  the 
bulk  of  the  Republican  party.  But  the  convention  re 
jected  the  proposition.  The  blacks  in  the  state  ex 
ceeded  the  whites  in  numbers  by  about  80,000.  The 
sense  of  their  inferiority  and  of  their  utter  unfitness 
to  participate  in  the  government  was  too  universal,  the 
dread  of  anarchy  and  bloodshed  too  pervading  among 
the  members  to  permit  of  its  acceptance.  The  other 
conventions  did  nothing  to  revive  it,  and  it  was  heard 
of  no  more  until  a  bitterer  alternative  waked  it  to  life. 
Notwithstanding  these  drawbacks,  however,  the  great 
task  of  the  restoration  of  the  eleven  lately  insurgent 
states  in  constitutional  subordination  to  the  general 
government  may  be  said  to  have  been  accomplished,  so 
far  as  the  executive  department  could  accomplish  it, 
when  the  thirty-ninth  Congress  met  in  its  first  session: 
four,  Virginia,  Louisiana,  Arkansas  and  Tennessee, 
under  Lincoln,  the  remaining  seven  under  Johnson; 
Florida  and  Texas  not  quite  ready,  but  sure  to  follow. 
It  remained  for  the  legislative  department  to  do  its 
part,  and  the  Union  for  which  the  armies  of  the  North 
had  fought  would  become  once  more  an  actuality. 

*  Id.,  note  to  p.  20. 


1 


SECTION  II 

THE    MEETING    or    THE    THIKTY-NINTH    CONGKESS 

THE  Republican  members  of  Congress  gathered  to 
gether  at  Washington  at  the  opening  of  the  session, 
in  December,  1865,  under  the  universal  impression  that 
the  supremacy  of  their  party  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation  was  at  stake.  Of  the  fifty  senators  from  the 
twenty-five  non-seceding  states,  thirty-nine  were  classed 
as  Republicans  and  but  eleven  as  Democrats;  and  of 
the  one  hundred  and  eighty-four  representatives  in 
the  House,  one  hundred  and  forty-one  were  classed  as 
Republicans  and  but  forty-three  as  Democrats.  ^  Should 
the  twenty-two  senators  and  fifty-eight  representatives 
from  the  eleven  reconstructed  states  be  allowed  to  take 
their  seats,  the  nominal  majority  of  the  party  in  power 
in  the  Senate  would  be  reduced  from  twenty-eight  to 
but  six,  and  the  nominal  majority  in  the  House  from 
ninety-eight  to  forty  j  provided  all  the  recruits  sided 
with  the  Democrats.  And  that  was  precisely  what  it 
was  foreseen  they  would  be  bound  to  do  with  but  very 
few  exceptions.  All  those  not  barred  from  taking  their 
seats  by  inability  to  take  the  iron-clad  oath  (as  it  was 
called)  were  Union  men  of  the  Andrew  Johnson  type, 
sure  to  gravitate  to  their  old-time  party,  while  those 
who  were  so  barred  would  return  to  their  constituents 
to  be  soon  replaced  by  others  exempt  from  the  dis- 

(22) 


THE   THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS  23 

ability  but  no  fonder  of  the  Republican  party.  Be 
sides,  the  nominal  majority  was  by  no  means  stable. 
Four  senators  heretofore  classed  as  Republicans,  Dixon, 
Cowan,  Doolittle  and  Norton,  were  avowed  supporters 
of  the  President's  policy  and  others  were  suspected  of 
leaning  that  way,  while  there  was  a  growing  contingent 
in  the  House  whose  orthodoxy  was  more  or  less  in 
doubt.  In  a  word,  the  dominating  motive  of  the  op 
position  to  the  Lincoln-Johnson  plan  of  reconstruction 
was  the  conviction  that  its  success  would  wreck  the 
Republican  party,  restore  the  Democrats  to  power  and 
bring  back  the  days  of  Southern  supremacy  and  North-  J 
ern  vassalage.  As  Thad.  Stevens  with  his  customary^- 
frankness  said  in  his  first  speech  at  this  session :  ' '  With 
the  basis  unchanged,  the  eighty-three  southern  mem 
bers,  with  the  Democrats  that  will  in  the  best  times 
be  elected  from  the  North,  will  always  give  them  ai 
majority  in  Congress  and  in  the  Electoral  College. 
They  will  at  the  very  first  election  take  possession  of 
the  White  House  and  the  halls  of  Congress."  And<— 
the  most  exasperating  feature  of  the  whole  perplexing 
situation  was  that  this  catastrophe  (to  the  minds  of 
the  entire  majority  the  most  sweeping  they  could  con 
template)  was  being  brought  about  by  an  Executive 
of  their  party's  own  choice.  The  President  with  his 
Cabinet-  appeared  to  be  pressing  on  with  headlong 
eagerness  a  restoration  of  the  Union  which  could  not 
but  prove  fatal  to  the  ascendency  of  the  party  which 
had  borne  the  heat  and  burden  of  administration  dur 
ing  the  war,  a  result  which  the  President,  supported 

*  Globe,  1st  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  74. 


24     IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

by  his  old-time  party  associates,  seemed  to  regard  with 
the  utmost  equanimity. 

Under  these  trying  circumstances,  the  Republican 
members  of  the  House  met  in  caucus  on  the  Saturday 
evening  before  the  meeting  of  Congress  to  formulate 
a  plan  of  opposition,  and,  in  the  absence  of  Henry 
Winter  Davis,  who  had  not  been  re-elected,  (Tliaddeus 
Stevens,  by  tacit  consent,  at  once  assumed  the  leader 
ship.  This  man  was  probably  the  most  remarkable 
of  the  time.  In  his  seventy-fourth  year,  his  once  stal 
wart  form  was  enfeebled  not  only  by  age  but  by  dis 
ease.  His  cadaverous  countenance  was  surmounted 
by  a  brown  wig,  and  from  under  beetling  brows  flashed 
eyes  whose  fire  the  flight  of  years  seemed  to  have  made 
only  the  more  intense.  A  cripple  from  birth,  one  of 
his  legs  terminating  in  a  mere  bunch  of  flesh,  his 
deformity,  it  is  likely,  had  embittered  his  spirit. 
Migrating  in  the  dawn  of  manhood  from  Vermont  to 
Pennsylvania,  he  had  spent  the  greater  part  of  his  life 
on  the  southern  border,  and,  being  a  lawyer  of  emi 
nence,  he  had  been  often  brought  in  contact  with  the 
slave  flying  for  freedom  from  the  adjoining  state.  His 
was  a  "soul  easily  set  on  fire  by  any  instance  of  cruelty 
and  oppression  coming  within  his  observation,  and  he 
learned  early  to  pity  the  slave  with  a  consuming  pity 
and  to  hate  his  master  with  a  consuming  hate.  Having 
been  an  abolitionist  of  the  most  uncompromising  type 
before  there  was  an  abolition  party  at  all,  he  hailed  the 
advent  of  the  war  as  the  death-knell  of  what  he  branded 
as  the  Satanic  Institution.  The  representative  of  the 
congressional  district  of  James  Buchanan  since  1858, 


THE   THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS  25 

lie  had  never  swerved  for  a  moment  from  his  view  of 
the  contest.  In  the  dark  hour  of  the  Bull  Bun  defeat, 
he  refused  to  join  in  the  congressional  pledge  that  the 
war  was  not  a  war  of  abolition  or  subjugation,  and  his 
career  from  that  hour  to  the  present  had  been  one  in 
cessant  effort  to  wring  from  his  party  a  repudiation  of 
this  unanimous  but,  as  he  denounced  it,  craven  resolve. 
He  was  for  universal,  uncompensated  emancipation 
long  before  Lincoln  was  forced  to  concede  it,  and  no 
pleading  of  his  party  associates  could  restrain  him 
from  showering  the  coarsest  vituperation  on  the 
tenderness  with  which  the  President  approached  this 
institution  of  his  deepest  abhorrence.  He  was  the 
open  advocate  of  wholesale  and  indiscriminate  confis 
cation  of  the  lands  of  the  insurgents  and  their  distribu 
tion  among  the  neighboring  freedmen.  Though  kindly 
to  individuals  with  whom  he  came  in  personal  asso 
ciation  and  by  nature  not  a  man  of  blood,  he  was  the 
very  soul  of  vindictiveness  toward  classes  who  em 
bodied  principles  or  customs  he  detested,  and  he  would 
not  have  hesitated  to  wade  through  seas  of  blood  to 
redress  the  wrongs  of  the  poor  and  down-trodden.  His 
lifelong  and  ingrained  hostility  to  negro  slavery  colored 
all  his  thoughts  and  quickened  his  every  emotion,  un 
settling  his  judgment  and  unfitting  him  for  the  intri 
cate  problems  of  statesmanship.  He  was  never 
troubled  with  any  reverence  for  the  limitary  provi 
sions  of  the  Constitution.  He  stigmatized  that  instru 
ment  as  spotted  with  the  weakness  of  its  framers  and 
their  times  and  he  welcomed  the  victory  of  the  North 
as  an  opportunity  to  make  it  what  he  thought  it  ought 


26     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

to  be.  He  had  no  love  for  the  Union  as  long  as  it 
was  a  Union  with  slaveholding  states,  and  the  destruc 
tion  of  his  private  property  in  the  raids  of  Lee  across 
the  border  served  only  to  make  the  more  lurid  his 
chronic  rage  against  the  slave-hunters  of  the  Southern 
section.  *  Like  Marat,  he  shocked  the  cautious  party 
leaders  by  the  outspokenness  with  which  he  hurled  his 
scorching  anathemas  against  the  Southern  aristocrats. 
Like  Marten,  he  was  not  ashamed  to  shout  out  the  secret 
purpose  which  lurked  hidden  in  the  heart  of  hearts  of 
his  associates  but  which  they  would  have  blushed 
openly  to  avow.  He  had  the  courage— nay,  the 
audacity— of  his  convictions;  and,  while  he  poured  out 
on  his  opponents  invectives  that  withered  to  the  inner 
most  fibre  and  sarcasms  that  burnt  to  the  bone,  to  the 
wavering,  the  calculating,  the  time-serving  amongst  his 
own  ranks,  he  was  the  very  incarnation  of  scorn.  Since 
the  first  year  of  the  war  he  had  dominated  the  House, 
though  far  in  advance  of  the  majority  in  the  extreme 
radicalism  of  his  opinions.  He  had  an  ever-ready, 
biting  wit  and  a  sardonic  humor.  He  was  short  and 
sententious  in  speech,  and,  at  times,  eloquent  from  the 
very  concentrated  bitterness  of  his  diction.  He  knew 
what  he  wanted,  and  was  restrained  by  no  sense  of 
propriety  from  saying  what  he  wanted,  both  for  him 
self  and  his  party.  The  popular  watchword  that  this 
was  a  white  man's  government  drove  him  into  par 
oxysms  of  anger,  and,  in  face  of  the  shafts  of  lightning 
he  shot  around  him  on  all  sides  when  laboring  under 
such  a  seizure,  the  boldest  of  his  adversaries  shunned 
a  close  encounter,  and  the  more  conservative  of  his 


THE   THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS  27 

own  party  sank  into  silence  and  dismay.  The  chief 
weapons  of  his  rule  were  the  remorselessness  with 
which  he  pushed  the  party  on  from  the  premises  agreed 
upon  to  their  full  logical  conclusion,  and  the  vigour 
with  which  he  laid  on  the  lash.  Conventionalities  he 
despised  and  respectabilities  he  ridiculed.  He  had  but 
little  regard  for  the  opinion  of  his  fellows,  good  or  bad. 
He  would  have  scorned  to  play  the  demagogue,  even  if 
a  wirepuller  could  have  been  found  foolhardy  enough  to 
suggest  such  a  course.  He  chose  his  line  at  the  behest 
of  his  deepest  passion,  and  he  kept  it  to  the  end,  regard 
less  of  friends,  enemies,  party  policy,  the  entreaties  of 
the  cautious  and  the  whimperings  of  the  sly.  Accord 
ing  to  his  creed,  the  insurgent  states  were  conquered 
provinces  to  be  shaped  into  a  paradise  for  -the  f reedman 
and  a  hell  for  the  rebel.  His  eye  shot  over  the  black 
ened  Southern  land.  He  saw  the  carnage,  the  desola 
tion,  the  starvation  and  the  shame ;  and,  like  a  battered 
old-warhorse,  he  flung  up  his  frontlet,  snuffed  the 
tainted  breeze  and  snorted  Ha !  Ha ! 

The  very  fact  that  he  was  so  far  in  advance  of  the 
bulk  of  the  party  contributed  more  than  anything  else 
to  his  choice  as  leader  in  so  perilous  a  crisis.  Thg 
plan  of  the  President,  being  destructive  of  the  party, 
must  be  blocked  at  all  hazards,  and  here  was  the  man 
to  block  it,  as  he  had  shown  in  the  days  o£  Lincoln. 
Holding  in  abeyance  for  the  moment  his  theory  of 
state  suicide,  he  laid  before  the  caucus  the  following 
programme : ^^Fjrsj;,  to  claim  the  whole  subject-matter  of 
reconstruction  as  the  exclusive  business  of  the  Con 
gress.  Seco-ndto  regard  all  that  had  been  done  hith- 


28     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

erto  in  the  re-edification  of  the  eleven  states,  as  well 
those  reorganized  under  Lincoln  as  those  under  John 
son,  either  in  effect  as  not  done  at  all,  or  as  merely 
experimental,  provisional,  subject  to  the  approval  or 
disapproval,  revision  or  reversal,  ratification  or  nulli 
fication  of  the  Congress.  r{Jhird,  that,  each  House  de 
clining  to  exercise  its  function  of  judging  of  the  elec 
tion  and  qualifications  of  its  members  in  case  of  per 
sons  from  the  eleven  states  claiming  to  be  senators  or 
representatives,  both  unite  in  refusing  to  acknowledge 
the  right  of  representation  of  these  states  until  Con 
gress  pronounce  the  reconstructed  local  governments 
valid  and  satisfactory.  These  propositions  being  ac 
cepted  without  objection,  a  committee  was  appointed 
which,  in  ten  minutes,  made  a  report  directing  the  clerk 
of  the  House  to  leave  off  the  roll  the  names  of  every 
person  claiming  to  be  a  representative  of  any  of  the 
eleven  states,  and  presenting  a  joint  resolution  for  the 
appointment  of  a  joint-committee  of  fifteen— nine  from 
the  House  and  six  from  the  Senate— "  to  inquire  into 
the  condition  of  the  States  which  formed  the  so-called 
Confederate  States  of  America  and  report  whether 
they  or  any  of  them  are  entitled  to  be  represented  in 
either  House  of  Congress,7'  and  providing  that  " until 
such  report  be  made  and  finally  acted  upon  by  Congress 
no  member  from  such  States  be  received  into  either 
House."  This  programme  was  carried  out  to  the  let 
ter  when  the  House  met  on  Monday,  despite  the  protest 
of  Maynard  from  the  President's  own  state,  and  with 
out  deigning  to  wait  for  the  President's  message.* 

*  Globe,  supra,  pp.  3,  5. 


THE   THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS  29 

That  document  came  the  next  day,  and,  in  contrast 
to  the  unpleasant  reiteration  of  phrases  and  occasional 
incoherency  of  thought  which  characterized  Andrew 
Johnson 's  speeches,  surprised  the  Houses  and  the 
country  by  the  smoothness  of  its  diction  and  the  power 
of  its  argumentation.  He  dealt  with  the  Stevens 
theory  as  follows: 

"States,  with  proper  limitations  of  power,  are  essential 
to  the  existence  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 

"The  perpetuity  of  the  Constitution  brings  with  it  the 
perpetuity  of  the  States;  their  mutual  relations  make  us 
what  we  are,  and  in  our  political  system  this  connection  is 
indissoluble.  The  whole  cannot  exist  without  the  parts  nor 
the  parts  without  the  whole.  So  long  as  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  endures,  the  States  will  endure;  the 
destruction  of  the  one  is  the  destruction  of  the  other;  the 
preservation  of  the  one  is  the  preservation  of  the  other. 

"The  true  theory  is  that  all  pretended  acts  of  secession 
were,  from  the  beginning,  null  and  void.  The  States  can 
not  commit  treason,  nor  screen  the  individual  citizens  who 
may  have  committed  treason,  any  more  than  they  can 
make  valid  treaties,  or  engage  in  lawful  commerce  with  any 
foreign  Power.  The  States  attempting  to  secede  placed 
themselves  in  a  condition  where  their  vitality  was  impaired, 
but  not  extinguished— their  functions  suspended  but  not 
destroyed." 

After  reciting  the  first  steps  of  his  plan  the  Presi 
dent  continues:  "The  next  step"  in  the  process  of 
restoration  was  "the  invitation  to  the  States  to  partici 
pate  in  the  high  office  of  amending  the  Constitution." 
A  ratification  of  the  amendment  forever  abolishing 


30     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

slavery  had  been  exacted  in  the  interests  of  future 
harmony  and  as  "a  pledge  of  perpetual  loyalty  and 
peace. ' ' 

''The  amendment  to  the  Constitution  being  adopted  it 
would  remain  for  the  States,  whose  powers  have  been  so  long 
in  abeyance,  to  resume  their  places  in  the  two  branches  of 
the  national  Legislature,  and  thereby  complete  the  work  of 
restoration.  Here,  it  is  for  you,  fellow  citizens  of  the 
Senate,  and  for  you,  fellow  citizens  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  to  judge,  each  of  you  for  yourselves,  of  the 
elections,  returns,  and  qualifications  of  your  own  members. ' ' 

He  treats  the  absorbing  topic  of  suffrage  for  the 
freedmen  as  follows: 

' '  On  the  propriety  of  making  freedmen  electors  by  procla 
mation  of  the  Executive,  I  took  for  my  counsel  the  Consti 
tution  itself,  the  interpretations  of  that  instrument  by  its 
authors  and  their  contemporaries,  and  the  recent  legislation 
of  Congress."  He  found  them  all  unitedly  inculcating  the 
doctrine  that  the  regulation  of  the  suffrage  was  a  power 
exclusively  for  the  states.  "So  fixed  was  this  reservation 
of  power  in  the  habits  of  the  people,  and  so  unquestioned 
has  been  the  interpretation  of  the  Constitution,  that  dur 
ing  the  civil  war  the  late  President  never  harbored  the  pur 
pose — certainly  never  avowed  the  purpose — of  disregarding 
it ;  and  in  acts  of  Congress  nothing  can  be  found  to  sanc 
tion  any  departure  by  the  Executive  from  a  policy  which 
has  so  uniformly  obtained." 

He  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  settlement  of  the 
question  was  much  better  left  to  the  several  states. 
1  i  They  can  each  for  itself  decide  on  the  measure  and 
whether  it  is  to  be  adopted  at  once  and  absolutely  or 


THE   THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS  31 

introduced  gradually  and  with  conditions. ' '  He  avows 
the  belief  that  after  the  tumult  of  emotions  has  sub 
sided  the  freedmen  "will  receive  the  kindliest  usage 
from  some  of  those  on  whom  they  have  heretofore  most 
closely  depended,"  and  "if  they  show  patience  and 
manly  virtues"  "will  sooner  obtain  participation  in 
the  elective  franchise  through  the  states  tl^an  through 
the  general  government  even  if  it  had  the  power  to 
intervene."  He  affirms  that  good  faith  requires  their 
security  in  their  liberty,  their  property,  their  right 
to  labor  and  to  claim  a  just  return  for  their  labor.* 
The  message  was  received  with  approval  on  all  sides ; 
by  the  Republican  majority  except  the  extreme  Rad 
icals,  by  the  Democratic  minority  and  by  the  country 
at  large.  Senator  Dixon,  three  months  later,  could 
ask  with  confidence:  "Was  ever  a  message  submitted 
to  a  more  approving  Congress?  Was  there  ever  a 
message  read  by  a  more  admiring  public  ?"f  The 
majority  were  reluctant  as  yet  to  come  to  an  open 
breach  and  thus  create  a  dangerous  schism  in  their 
party,  especially  as  long  as,  by  the  President's  own 
admission,  they  held  the  key  of  the  situation  in  the 
power  to  refuse  to  complete  the  President's  plan  by 
the  admission  of  the  senators  and  representatives  sent 
by  his  reconstructed  states.  The  resolution  of  the 
House  was  passed  by  the  Senate  so  far  as  it  provided 
for  the  appointment  of  a  joint  committee,  but  the 
Senate  refused  to  enter  into  a  joint  pledge  of  non- 
action  and  a  joint  relinquishment  of  the  privilege  to 

*  Message  in  McPherson,  p.  64. 

f  Dixon's  remark:    Globe,  1st  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p,   1046. 


32     IMPEACHMENT   OP  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

admit  members  until  such  time  as  a  report  was  made; 
and  the  House  was  compelled  to  content  itself  with 
renewing  both  pledge  and  relinquishment  for  itself. 

To  the  committee  of  fifteen  all  matters  relating  to 
the  eleven  states  were  referred,  all  credentials  of  mem 
bers  from  those  states  were  sent  there  by  the  House 
Jf  and  laid  on,  the  table  by  the  Senate.  Until  this  com 
mittee  should  see  fit  to  make  its  will  known,  the  work 
of  reconstruction  was  necessarily  at  a  stand-still.  The 
President  might  fret,  especially  over  the  exclusion  of 
his  own  state.  He  could  do  nothing  for  which  the 
majority  could  fasten  a  quarrel  upon  him.  Even 
Stevens  refrained  from  personal  attack.  Seizing  upon 
the  admission  in  the  message  that  the  late  rebel  states 
had  lost  their  constitutional  relations  to  the  Union  and 
were  incapable  of  representation  in  Congress,  he  as 
serted  triumphantly  that  this  admission  settled  the 
whole  question,  and  with  transparent  irony  claimed  the 
President  as  his  own.  "As  there  are  no  symptoms  that 
the  people  of  these  provinces  will  be  prepared  to  par 
ticipate-  in  constitutional  government  for  some  years, 
I  know  of  no  arrangement  so  proper  for  them  as  terri 
torial  governments.  There  they  can  learn  the  prin 
ciples  of  freedom  and  eat  the  fruit  of  foul  rebellion. 
Under  such  governments  while  electing  members  to 
the  Territorial  Legislature  they  will  necessarily  mingle 
with  those  to  whom  Congress  shall  extend  the  rights 
of  suffrage." 

But  nfoflrles  Rpjmier,  Q°  scheme  of  party  policy  could 
restrain.  Of  that  type  of  men  who  never  feel  the  need 

*  Globe,  id.,  p.  74. 


THE   THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS  33 

of  a  revision  of  their  judgments,  lie  had  never  looked^/ 
up  to  a  living  man  as  greater  than  himself  nor  felt 
himself  impelled  to  follow  any  leader.  From  the  very 
outset  of  his  career  his  course  was  unalterably  fixed. 
His  first  goal  wras  the  emancipation  of  the  negro,  and 
he  never  deviated  an  inch  from  the  straight  line  which 
led  to  that  end.  That  goal  being  reached  or  sure  of 
being  reached,  he  staked  down  another—  suffrage  for 
the  freedmen  —  and  then  "dedicated  to  its  attainment  the 
same  unwearied  energies.  Like  a  law  of  nature,  he 
bent  neither  to  the  right  nor  to  the  left,  crushing  with 
out  pity,  because  without  appreciation  of  its  presence, 
every  obstacle  in  his  path,  and  deaf  alike  to  solicita 
tions  to  compromise,  to  appeals  for  respite  or  pleas 
for  charity.  Like  Robespierre,  though  blood  was  hate 
ful  to  his  sight  and  offensive  to  his  nostrils,  though 
war  had  no  place  in  his  scheme  of  things  and  by 
hypothesis  ought  not  to  exist  at  all,  yet,  in  pursuit  of 
his  purpose,  he  could  look  with  indifference  on  the 
cutting  down  of  legions  of  men  because  by  some  un 
accountable  fatality  they  managed  to  throw  themselves 
in  his  way.  Eenowned  throughout  the  world  as  one 
of  the  great  humanitarians  of  his  day,  nevertheless 
the  good  old  phrase  would  best  express  him  —  he  was 
Unemotional  in  a  marked  degree,  he 


loved  without  passion,  and  hated  without  warmth.  A 
philanthropist,  if  that  could  be  called  love  of  his  fel 
lows  which  was  wholly  intellectual.  An  implacable 
antagonist,  his  bosom  was  too  frigid  to  swell  with  a 
gust  of  righteous  wrath  and  his  blood  too  sluggish  to 
carry  him  away  in  the  heat  of  temper.  The  creed  he 

3 


34     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

believed  in,  the  course  he  followed,  the  theories  he  ad 
vanced,  the  principles  by  which  he  was  distinguished 
assumed  somehow  in  his  hands  a  factitious,  unreal 
aspect.  His  anti-slavery  crusade  he  nursed  and  cod 
dled  and  then  rode  as  a  hobby.  His  presupposition  that 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  had  the  force  of  or 
ganic  law  was  fantastic.  The  argumentation  by  which 
he  sought  to  prove  that  the  slaveholding  framers  of 
the  Constitution  believed  that  no  government  could 
be  republican  in  form  which  disfranchised  a  portion 
of  its  people  on  account  of  such  a  permanent  natural 
mark  as  race  or  colour,  was  ingenious  but  had  no  foot 
ing  on  the  solid  earth.  With  painstaking  elaboration 
he  arranged  his  speeches  in  blocks,  each  headed  by 
some  ad  captandum  label  to  arrest  the  attention  of  the 
reader  and  the  gaze  of  posterity.  Even  his  invective 
was  artificial— made  up  without  the  excuse  of  passion, 
in  the  silence  and  solitude  of  the  closet,  and  read  from 
manuscript,  without  fervour,  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate. 
As  he  did  not  himself  feel  the  venom  of  his  speech,  he 
had  no  appreciation  of  its  legitimate  effects.  With  the 
cool  neutrality  of  a  scientist,  he  sprinkled  upon  the 
skin  of  his  opponent  drop  after  drop  of  double-distilled 
aqua-f ortis ;  and  when  the  victim  wraxed  vociferous 
under  the  sting,  he  was  shocked  at  the  vulgarity  of  his 
violence.  He  informed  a  brother  senator  in  scholarly 
phrase  that  he  was  a  liar,  a  hypocrite,  a  thief,  a  whore 
monger,  a  trafficker  in  his  own  flesh  and  blood,  a  traitor 
to  his  country  and  a  blasphemer  of  his  God ;  and,  then, 
was  astonished  that  the  object  of  his  candor  did  not 
receive  the  charge  as  a  friendly  admonition.  He  used 


THE   THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS  35 

habitually  epithets  which  only  the  hottest  anger  could 
excuse,  without  feeling  the  slightest  warmth  in  his 
veins,  and  he  delivered  blow  after  blow  such  as  men 
deal  about  them  in  a  paroxysm  of  rage,  without  the 
stiffening  of  a  muscle  or  a  quickening  of  the  pulse. 
Human  riffhts^Jn^the^abstract,  werejthe  object  of  his 
intellectual  worship.^  The  individuals  to  whom  human 
rights  appertained,  and  the  manifold  compromises  of 
the  social  union  necessary  to  the  security  of  human 
rights  in  the  workaday  world  never  disturbed  the  com 
placency  of  his  contemplation.  The  slave-power,  the 
slave-holder,  the  slave-hunter— as  a  generalized  uni 
versal — was  the  object  of  his  most  elaborate  maledic 
tion.  The  concrete  specimens  that  crossed  his  path 
inspired  at  most  a  feeble  dislike  and  provoked  only  a 
transient  growl.  His  nature  lacked  spontaneity.  He 
never  laughed  a  full-throated,  heartfelt  laugh  in  his 
life.  His  smile,  when  he  did  smile,  was  sardonic.  He 
never  shed  a  tear  over  a  defeat,  no  matter  how  humili 
ating.  He  never  let  himself  out  in  a  shout  of  exulta 
tion  over  a  triumph,  no  matter  how  complete  and  soul- 
satisfying.  Sumner  was  tall  in  stature  and  appeared 
stalwart  in  form.  He  dressed  with  the  unstudied  neat 
ness  and  intuitive  taste  of  a  gentleman.  He  had  an 
Apollo-like  head  whose  hyacinthine  locks,  tinged  with 
grey  and  thinned  by  years,  hid  a  retreating  brow.  His 
eye  was  small  and  insignificant,  his  features  common 
place,  his  voice  harsh,  loud  and  tuneless.  He  possessed 
none  of  the  graces  of  the  orator,  except  the  felicity  of 
his  diction.  He  had  a  multitude  of  acquaintances, 


36     IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

many  admirers,  a  few  intimates,  but  hardly  one  own 
familiar  friend. 

With  so  self-sufficient  and  independent  a  character, 
it  was  at  all  times  difficult  to  co-operate  in  schemes 
of  party  management,  and  the  most  carefully  laid 
devices  of  the  politicians  were  liable  to  be  broken  into 
by  so  mechanical  a  strider  after  ideals.  For  Lin 
coln  while  he  lived,  Sumner  never  cherished  a  lively 
admiration,  and  that  such  an  illiterate  plebeian  as 
Johnson  should  be  President  of  the  United  States  filled 
him  with  disgust.  In  September  he  declared  to  a 
Republican  convention  in  Massachusetts  over  which 
he  presided  that  no  one  could  say  that  "a  generation 
must  not  elapse  before  the  rebel  communities  have  been 
so  far  changed  as  to  become  safe  associates  in  a  com 
mon  government.  .  .  .  Time,  therefore,  we  must  have. 
Through  time  all  other  guarantees  may  be  obtained; 
but  time  itself  is  a  guarantee. "  And  he  was  now 
watching  his  opportunity  to  denounce  the  President 
for  his  disregard  of  this  important  factor.  Even  on 
so  inappropriate  an  occasion  as  the  obsequies  of  the  de 
ceased  senator  Collamerf  he  did  not  refrain  from  prais 
ing  that  statesman's  course  in  opposition  to  the  policy 
of  Lincoln,  "who,"  as  he  said,  "undertook  in  disre 
gard  of  Congress  and  solely  by  executive  power  to 
institute  civil  governments  throughout  that  region 
where  civil  governments  had  been  overthrown,  imitat 
ing  in  the  agencies  he  employed  the  Cromwellian 
system  of  ruling  by  ' major-generals.'  .  .  .  The  eggs 

*  Speech  on  "  The  national  security  and  the  national  faith  " — quoted 
by  Dixon  in  Globe  ut  supra,  p.  1046. 
t  Globe,  id.,  p.  56. 


THE   THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS  37 

of  crocodiles  can  produce  only  crocodiles,  and  it  is 
not  easy  to  see  how  the  eggs  laid  by  military  power 
can  be  hatched  into  an  American  State."  But  his 
opportunity  came  on  the  nineteenth  day  of  December 
when  the  President  sent  in  a  special  message  setting 
forth  the  bright  prospects  of  the  Southern  states,  ac 
companied  by  a  report  by  General  Grant  of  the  same 
optimistic  tenor.  General  Grant  stated:  "I  am 
satisfied  that  the  mass  of  thinking  men  of  the  South 
accept  the  present  situation  of  affairs  in  good  faith"; 
slavery  and  the  right  of  secession  "they  regard  as 
having  been  settled  forever  by  the  highest  tribunal, 
arms,  that  man  can  resort  to";  that  they  considered 
"this  decision  a  fortunate  one  for  the  whole  country." 
He  continued:  "My  observations  lead  me  to  the  con 
clusion  that  the  citizens  of  the  Southern  States  are 
anxious  to  return  to  self-government  within  the  Union 
as  soon  as  possible :  that  while  reconstructing  they 
want  and  require  protection  from  the  Government; 
that  they  are  in  earnest  in  wishing  to  do  what  they 
think  is  required  by  the  Government,  no't  humiliating 
to  them  as  citizens,  and  that,  if  such  course  was  pointed 
out,  they  would  pursue  it  in  good  faith."* 

Sumner  characterized  the  message  of  the  President 
as  similar  to  "the  whitewashing  message  of  Franklin 
Pierce  with  regard  to  the  enormities  in  Kansas.  That 
is  its  parallel."!  And  the  next  day,  in  support  of 
a  sweeping  measure  of  his  colleague,  which  nullified 
at  a  stroke  all  laws  of  the  states  lately  in  rebellion 

*  Report  in  McPherson,  p.  67. 
t  Globe,  id.,  p.  79. 


38     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

recognizing  inequality  in  civil  rights  on  account  of 
colour  and  prohibiting  the  enactment  of  any  such  in 
the  future,  he  delivered  one  of  his  elaborately  con 
structed  addresses,  in  which,  after  recurring  to  his 
doctrine  that  it  was  the  duty  of  Congress  to  enforce 
negro  suffrage  in  the  eleven  states  under  the  guarantee 
clause  of  the  Constitution,  by  a  favorite  device  of  his, 
viz:  reading  from  letters  of  correspondents  whose 
names  were  frequently  withheld  to  shield,  as  he  said, 
the  writers  from  the  anger  of  the  communities  they 
assailed,  he  unrolled  a  hopeless  picture  of  the  Southern 
land,  "the  sickening  and  heart-rending  outrages" 
which  the  President  attempted  "to  white  wash,"  "to 
throw  the  mantle  of  official  approval"  over  "the 
sacrifice  of  Human  Rights"  and  to  give  a  "new  letter 
of  license"  to  "rebel  Barbarism."* 

Cowan  of  Pennsylvania,  in  reply,  made  a  spirited 
defence  of  the  President  and  his  policy,  and  Stewart 
of  Nevada  created  a  great  sensation  by  coming  out 
squarely  on  the  side  of  the  administration,  opposing 
any  plan  "to  govern  eleven  states  as  conquered 
provinces,"  opposing  universal  negro  suffrage,  and 
winding,  up  with  the  painful  interrogatory :  * '  Are  we 
willing  to  prolong  the  restoration  of  the  Union  and 
risk  the  experiment  of  taxation  without  representation 
for  fear  that  the  application  of  the  rule  that  the  voice 
of  the  majority  is  law,  shall  drive  us  from  power  ?"t 
The  bias  of  Cowan  and  Doolittle  and  Dixon  in  favor  of 
the  President  was  well  known,  but  this  defection  of  the 

*Id.,  91. 

..  Globe,  id.,  pp.  109-11. 


THE   THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS  39 

young  senator  from  the  youngest  state  shocked  the 
motherly  soul  of  Wilson.  Henry  Wilson,  like  Andrew 
Johnson,  sprang  from  a  low  grade  of  the  social  scale— 
the  one  having  been  a  cobbler  as  the  other  had  been 
a  tailor.  But  as  the  two  men  grew  up  under  the  in 
fluences  of  their  respective  surroundings,  while  the 
Tennessean's  nature  hardened  into  the  fixity  of  cast- 
iron,  the  New  Englander's  softened  so  as  to  run  over 
with  every  breath  of  feeling.  To  his  well-born,  high- 
cultured  colleague  he  presented  a  strong  contrast;— 
not  in  physical  form,  for  he  was  dignified  in  appear- 
ence,  a  sleek-looking,  clerical  figure,  with  smooth- 
brushed  dingy- white  hair;  not  so  much  in  manner  of 
speech,  although  he  was  fluent,  given  to  extemporaneous 
utterance,  powerful  on  the  stump  and  rolled  along 
with  the  heave  and  swell  of  the  practiced  exhorter— 
but  in  mind  and  heart.  If  Sumner  was  all  intellect 
inaccessible  to  emotion,  Wilson  was  all  emotion  un- 
restrainable  by  intellect.  His  whole  heart  was  dis 
solved  into  a  fountain  of  tears  over  the  wrongs  of  the 
black  man,  and  he  became  the  champion  of  negroes  in 
the  concrete  as  his  colleague  became  the  champion  of 
Human  Eights  as  embodied  in  the  negro  in  the  abstract. 
He  now  burst  forth  into  a  lamentation  over  the  inhu 
man  incredulity  of  the  senator  from  Nevada  as  to  "  the 
atrocities  and  cruelties  perpetrated ' '  on  the  poor,  dumb, 
toiling  freedmen;  and  then,  with  apprehension  depicted 
upon  his  countenance,  protested  that  he  had  no  appre 
hensions.  There  had  been  "a  studied  and  systematic 
attempt  to  separate  the  President  from  the  great  party 
that  elected  him" ;  but  he  had  no  fears  of  the  President  ^ 


40     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  President  "had  labored  according  to  his  sense  of 
public  duty,  to  prepare  the  rebel  States  for  restora 
tion."  "He  had  made  no  issue  with  Congress  and 
Congress  had  made  no  issue  with  him."  "I  do  not 
believe  any  issue  will  be  made  by  the  President." 
The  senator  had  undoubting  faith  that  "needful 
legislation"  would  "receive  the  sanction  and  approval 
of  the  Executive."  "The  committee  we  have  ap 
pointed  .  .  .  will  report  proper  measures;  Congress 
will  pass  them;  the  President  will  sign  them;  these 
vacant  seats  will  be  filled  with  loyal  men";  and  every 
thing  will  turn  out  as  the  party  and  Providence  have 
unitedly  decreed.* 

The  House  on  the  same  day  listened  to  the  first 
speech  in  that  body  of  a  member  whose  career  hitherto 
had  aroused  great  expectations.  Henry  J.  Raymond 
was  an  influential  party-man  and  a  lifelong  supporter 
of  William  H.  Seward;  but  what  gave  him  peculiar 
prominence  was  he  was  the  founder  and  editor  of  the 
New  York  Times,  one  of  the  leading  newspapers  in  the 
country.  That  paper  had  given  to  the  President's 
course  during  the  past  summer  a  judicious  support, 
apparently  without  being  aware  that  it  was  doing 
anything  less  than  its  duty  to  the  party ;  and  its  editor 
was  now  expected  to  echo  with  power  the  opinions 
of  his  organ  on  the  floor  of  the  House.  His  speech, 
(generally  considered  a  disappointment)  consisted 
mainly  of  an  argument  against  the  theory  of  Stevens, 
and  its  effect  was  greatly  impaired  by  the  incessant 
interruptions  with  which  he  was  pestered  and  which 

*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  111-2. 


THE   THIRTY-NINTH   CONGRESS  41 

he  too  good-naturedly  allowed.  The  radicals  made  a 
concerted  attack  upon  this  deserter  who  threatened  to 
become  too  influential.  One  after  another,  they  baited 
him,  until  at  last  Bingham  of  Ohio  advanced  to  give 
the  finishing  blow.  Plying  Raymond  with  self-con 
fident  questions,  he  suddenly  landed  himself  *in  ap 
parent  antagonism  to  the  President;  and  when  the 
victim  of  his  persecution  by  an  adroit  turn  of  the  debate 
took  advantage  of  this  mistake,  he  retreated  amid  a 
cloud  of  expostulations:  "I  am  sorry  to  see  the  gentle 
man  assume  that  he  alone  represents  the  President." 
"I  make  no  issue  with  the  President."  "I  respect 
fully  deny  the  gentleman 's  assertion  that  I  seek  to 
make  an  issue  with  the  President";  and  the  member 
from  New  York  was  allowed  to  finish  his  argument  in 
peace.*  And  so,  with  protests  of  harmony  in  both 
Houses,  Congress  adjourned  over  the  holidays. 

*  Globe,  id,,  pp.  120-124. 


SECTION  III 

4  THE   FIRST   VETO 

THUS  far,  it  may  be  said,  peace  prevailed  between 
the  Capitol  and  * l  the  other  end  of  the  Avenue. ' '  The 
more  conservative  Republicans  of  both  Houses,  anxious 
that  peace  should  be  kept,  were  casting  about  for  some 
course  of  action  on  which  Executive  and  Congress 
might  unite  and  thus  heal  the  incipient  schism  in  the 
party.  On  the  one  hand,  to  satisfy  the  more  impatient 
friends  of  the  negro,  measures  should  be  passed  ac 
cording  full  and  lasting  protection  to  the  freedmen  in 
all  their  civil  rights.  On  the  other,  to  placate  the 
President,  his  own  state  should  be  immediately  read 
mitted  as  the  happy  prologue  to  the  speedy  readmission 
of  all  in  the  same  category.  Accordingly,  on  the  re 
assembling  of  Congress  (January  5,  1866),  Trumbull, 
the  chairman  of  the  Judiciary  Committee  of  the  Senate, 
introduced  two  bills:  one  enlarging  the  powers  of  the 
Freedmen 's  Bureau,  the  other  protecting  the  civil 
rights  of  the  negro. 

From  the  start,  however,  the  progress  of  this  move 
ment  was  obstructed  by  the  negro-suffragists,  whose 
chief  exponents  were  Sumner  in  the  Senate  and 
George  S.  Boutwell  in  the  House.  As  an  earnest 
of  what  they  meant  to  demand  before  any  of  the 
excluded  states  should  be  readmitted,  they  pressed 

42 


THE    FIRST    VETO  43 

forward  the  bill  conferring  unqualified  suffrage  on 
the  colored  men  of  the  District  of  Columbia,  which, 
after  a  debate  mainly  between  the  partisans  of  sim 
ple  manhood  suffrage  and  the  partisans  of  qualified 
suffrage  disclosing  serious  breaks  in  the  ranks  of 
the  majority,  passed  the  House;  Mr.  Boutwell  end 
ing  the  discussion  with  the  expression  of  his  belief 
"that  any  restoration  of  either  of  the  eleven  states 
lately  engaged  in  the  rebellion  to  political  power  in  the 
Government  of  this  country,  which  is  not  coupled  with, 
or  preceded  by,  the  condition  that  the  negroes  of  the 
South  are  to  vote,  opened  the -way  to  the  destruction 
of  this  Government  from  which  there  is  no  escape.'7 
In  the  Senate,  however,  the  conservatives  succeeded  in 
laying  the  bill  upon  the  shelf  and  going  on  with  the 
two  measures  of  Trumbull,  the  former  of  which  passed 
the  Senate  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  January,  and  the 
latter  on  the  second  of  February  (with  a  sweeping 
amendment,  added  after  its  introduction,  making  all 
negroes  citizens  of  the  United  States) ;  such  prominent 
supporters  of  the  President  among  the  Republicans  as 
Dixon,  Doolittle,  Lane  of  Kansas  and  Stewart  being 
numbered  with  the  majority. 

But  what  finally  wrecked  this  promising  scheme  was    I 
the  immovability  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen  and  the   ' 
temper  of  the  House.      The  leading  members  of  the   i 
former  body  had  no  sympathy  with  the  senators  seek 
ing  a  compromise  with  the  President.      Stevens  had 
been  hostile  to  Johnson  from  the  beginning  and  Stevens 
at  present   ruled  the   committee.     What   exasperated 

*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  309-311. 


44     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  President  more  than  any  other  one  thing  was  the 
treatment  accorded  his  own  state.  As  early  as  last 
June  he  had  proclaimed  Tennessee,  alone  as  yet  of 
her  insurrectionary  sisters,  free  from  insurrection. 
He  had  watched  the  election  of  her  senators  and  repre 
sentatives  with  solicitude  and  congratulated  himself 
that  every  man  of  them  was  competent  to  take  the 
iron-clad  test  oath.  And  yet  the  state  w$s  treated 
like  an  alien,  although  one  of  her  citizens  was  President 
of  the  United  States.  Pressure  was  brought  to  get 
out  of  the  committee  a  special  resolution  admitting  the 
members  from  Tennessee  by  themselves.  "  Parson " 
Brownlow— the  fiery  governor  of  the  state— wrote  a 
letter  to  the  Speaker  of  the  House  (January  15th) 
stating : 

' '  I  am  decidedly  in  favor  of  admitting  the  Tennessee  dele 
gation.  .  .  .  The  Tennessee  delegates,  as  a  whole,  are  loyal, 
can  take  the  required  oath,  and  would,  if  in  their  seats, 
add  to  the  strength  of  the  Union  party.  .  .  .  Finally,  they 
ought  to  be  admitted  as  a  means  of  preventing  a  rupture 
between  Congress  and  the  President,  which  for  the  sake 
of  the  country  ought  to  be  avoided.  The  President  ought 
to  be  satisfied  with  the  admission  of  the  Tennessee  delegates 
to  their  seats,  and  I  have  no  doubt  would  be. '  '* 

But  it  was  all  to  no  purpose.  What  the  committee 
did  was  to  report  a  fourteenth  amendment  to  the  Con 
stitution  reducing  representation  in  states  withholding 
suffrage  from  male  citizens  on  account  of  race  or  colour, 
which,  after  a  long  and  hard  struggle,  passed  the 
House  by  the  necessary  two-thirds,  on  January  the 

*  For  letter  see  Globe,  id.,  p.  1017. 


THE    FIRST    VETO  45 

thirty-first.  Until  this  amendment,  after  having  been 
adopted  in  like  manner  by  the  Senate,  was  ratified  by 
the  legislatures  of  three-fourths  of  the  states,  it  seemed 
to  be  the  determination  of  the  omnipotent  committee 
to  keep  the  lately  insurgent  states  out  of  the  Union, 
including  Tennessee.  Having  apparently  committed 
itself  to  this  view  the  House  took  up  the  Freedmen's 
Bureau  bill  which,  after  a  dispute  with  the  Senate  over 
amendments,  was  finally  (February  9)  sent  to  the 
Executive.  Although  it  was  known  even  before  the 
bill  reached  the  President  that  he  was  dissatisfied  with 
some  of  its  features,  yet  the  preponderance  of  expec 
tation  was  in  favor  of  his  signing  it.  Symptoms  were 
not  wanting  of  growing  dissensions.  While  the  debate 
was  going  on  in  the  House  on  the  proposed  fourteenth 
amendment,  in  a  published  interview  with  senator 
Dixon  (January  28),  the  President  expressed  doubts 
of  the  propriety  of  making  any  further  amendments 
to  the  Constitution,  and  stated  that  "the  agitation  of 
the  question  of  negro  suffrage  in  the  District  of  Co 
lumbia  as  an  entering  wedge  to  the  agitation  of  that 
question  throughout  the  country  was  ill-timed,  uncalled- 
for  and  calculated  to  do  great  harm."*  On  the 
seventh  of  February,  to  a  delegation  of  colored  men 
come  to  press  the  granting  of  suffrage  to  their  race, 
he  declared  emphatically  he  would  not  adopt  a  policy 
that  he  believed  would  end  in  a  conflict  between  the 
races  and  the  extermination  of  one  or  the  other.f  On 
the  tenth,  he  told,  a  committee  of  the  legislature  of 

*McPh.    Recon.,  p.  51. 
t  Id.,  p.  53. 


46     IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

reconstructed  Virginia  that  he  was  in  favor  of  the  im 
mediate  restoration  of  these  states,  that  he  had  fought 
against  the  doctrine  that  a  state  could  go  out  of  the 
Union  and  could  never  be  brought  to  acknowledge  it: 
that  from  the  beginning  and  before  the  rebellion  there 
were  "extreme  men  North."  "The  Government  has 
taken  hold  of  one  extreme  and  with  the  strong  arm  of 
physical  power  has  put  down  the  rebellion.  Now,  as 
we  swing  round  the  circle  of  the  Union  ...  if  we  find 
the  counterpart  or  duplicate  of  the  same  spirit  .  .  . 
this  other  extreme,  which  stands  in  the  way,  must  get 
out  of  it."  On  the  other  side,  the  fourteenth  amend 
ment,  despite  the  eccentric  opposition  of  Sumner  who, 
in  a  two-days'  carefully  prepared  speech,  belabored  the 
measure  in  his  most. classic  style  as  "introducing  dis 
cord  and  defilement  in  the  Constitution,"  "polluting 
the  text  hitherto  kept  blameless"  by  the  verbal  rec 
ognition  of  l  i  race  and  color, ' '  was  finding  support  from 
those  conservatives  of  the  Senate  who  were  the  authors 
of  the  plan  of  compromise,  although  its  adoption  would 
render  it  practically  impossible  for  them  to  furnish  the 
stipulated  equivalent  for  any  concession  on  the  part 
of  the  President.  Nevertheless,  as  the  ten  days 
allowed  for  deliberation  were  passing  by,  the  majority 
kept  hoping  that  all  would  go  well.  Representatives 
'even  of  the  radical  sort  expressed  "unfaltering  con 
fidence"  in  the  President.  Some  stated  that  to  their 
personal  knowledge  the  President  endorsed  the  sub 
stance  of  the  bill;  Cullom  of  Illinois  going  so  far  as 

*  Id.,  pp.  56-8. 


THE    FIRST    VETO  47 

to  say  "the  bill  has  become  a  law,  as  I  take  it  for 
granted  the  Executive  will  sign  it."  The  Committee 
of  Fifteen  (so  it  was  stated  after  the  event),  was  on 
the  point  of  recommending  the  immediate  admission 
of  Tennessee.  A  veto  of  this,  the  first  bill  sent  to  the 
Executive  bearing  upon  the  South,  was  dreaded  by  all 
sections  of  the  party,  and  all  the  more  because  a  veto 
in  this  case  carried  with  it  the  veto  of  the  civil-rights 
bill,  a  far  more  important  measure,  already  passed  the 
Senate  and  sure  to  pass  the  House.  Yet  on  Monday, 
the  nineteenth,  when  suddenly  it  was  whispered  that  a 
message  from  the  President  was  on  the  way,  the  Senate 
galleries  were  instantly  surcharged  with  an  excited 
throng  aware  that  a  message  could  only  mean  a  veto. 

The  President  objected  to  the  bill  as  unnecessary,  the 
existing  act  not  having  expired  and  its  powers  ample; 
as  prolonging  military  measures  from  a  state  of  war 
where  they  were  proper  into  times  of  peace  where  they 
were  incongruous;  as  unconstitutional  in  creating 
tribunals  for  the  summary  trial .  of  offenders  without 
jury  and  without  the  right  of  appeal ;  as  making  a  grant 
of  such  unlimited  powers  a  part  of  the  permanent 
legislation  of  the  country,  and  clothing  the  President 
with  powers  "such  as  in  time  of  peace  certainly  ought 
never  to  be  trusted  to  any  one  man. ' ' 

The  last  and  "very  grave"  objection,  upon  which 
the  President  dwelt  longer  than  any  other,  was  the  one 
that  carried  the  sting : 

"The  Constitution  imperatively  declares,  in  connec 
tion  with  taxation,  that  each  State  shall  have  at  least 

*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  908,  911. 


48     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

one  Representative  and  fixes  the  rule  for  the  number 
to  which  in  future  times  each  State  shall  be  entitled. 
It  also  provides  that  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
shall  be  composed  of  two  Senators  from  each  State,  and 
adds  with  peculiar  force,  'that  no  State,  without  its 
consent,  shall  be  deprived  of  its  equal  suffrage  in  the 
Senate/  While  the  original  Freedmen's  Bureau 
Bill  passed  in  the  absence  of  the  states  chiefly  to  be 
affected,  this  was  necessarily  the  case  because  "their 
people  were  then  contumaciously  engaged  in  the  re 
bellion.  "  "  Now  the  case  is  changed  and  some  at  least 
of  those  States  are  attending  Congress  by  loyal  repre 
sentatives  soliciting  the  allowance  of  the  constitutional 
right  of  representation."  When  this  bill  was  passed 
there  was  "no  senator  or  representative  from  the  eleven 
States  which  are  mainly  to  be  affected  by  its  pro 
visions."  "There  should  be  no  taxation  without 
representation."  The  right  of  Congress  to  judge  of 
the  qualifications  of  its  members  "can  not  be  construed 
as  including  a  right  to  shut  out,  in  time  of  peace,  any 
State  from  the  representation  to  which  it  is  entitled  by 
the  Constitution."  "At  present,  all  the  people  of  the 
eleven  states  are  excluded— those  who  were  most  faith 
ful  during  the  war  not  less  than  others.  The  State 
of  Tennessee  for  instance"— and  the  President's 
soreness  over  the  treatment  administered  to  his  own 
state  can  be  discerned  beneath  the  calm  words  with 
which  her  heroic  resistance,  her  present  loyalty  and 
her  unforced  Adoption  of  the  abolition  amendment  are 
sketched.  The  reading  closed  amidst  applause  and 


THE    FIRST    VETO  49 

hisses  from  the  galleries  which  were  instantly  ordered 
cleared.  The  majority  in  the  first  flush  of  its  anger 
was  for  forcing  a  vote  without  consideration,  but,  after 
remonstrance  from  two  Republican  senators,  calmer 
feelings  prevailed  and  the  matter  was  allowed  to  go 
over  until  the  morrow.*  The  next  day,  accordingly, 
the  question  was  put  whether  the  bill  should  pass 
notwithstanding  the  objections  of  the  President,  and 
uncertainty  as  to  the  result  added  to  the  intensity  of 
the  excitement.  The  bill  was  originally  passed  by  yeas 
37  to  nays  10— more  than  two-thirds,  and  therefore 
enough  to  override  a  veto.  The  roll-call  had  not  pro 
ceeded  far,  however,  before  ominous  changes  appeared. 
Cowan  (who  was  absent  on  the  first  vote),  as  might 
have  been  expected,  voted  in  the  negative.  Dixon  and 
Doolittle  who  voted  for  the  bill  now  went  with  Cowan; 
Stewart,  also,  and  the  two  West  Virginia  senators; 
while,  to  the  consternation  of  the  majority,  Morgan  of 
New  York  joined  the  nays;  in  all,  five  changes  direct 
from  affirmative  to  negative,  besides  three  former  ab 
sentees  (Cowan,  Nesmith  and  Willey)  added  to  the  nays. 
Lane  of  Kansas,  a  staunch  friend  of  the  President,  and 
Henderson  still  voted  for  the  bill.  The  total  stood: 
Yeas  30  and  Nays  18.  The  President  pro-tern.  (Foster) 
arose  and  announced  to  the  chagrined  majority:  "Two- 
thirds  of  the  members  present  not  having  voted  for 
the  bill,  it  is  not  a  law."  The  galleries  applauded, 
hissed,  and  were  cleared  again.  The  thing  was  done. 
War  had  broken  out  and  the  first  victory  was  with  the 
President. 

*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  915,  917. 
4 


50     IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

The  House  manifested  its  ill-temper  by  passing  a 
concurrent  resolution  reiterating  the  caucus  decree  of 
the  beginning  of  the  session  that  no  senator  or  represen 
tative  of  any  of  the  eleven  states  shall  be  admitted  until 
Congress  shall  have  declared  such  state  entitled  to 
representation.  Stevens,  after  stating  that  "until 
yesterday  there  was  an  earnest  investigation  into  the 
condition  of  Tennessee  to  see  whether  we  could  admit 
the  State,"  declared  that  "since  yesterday  there  has 
arisen  a  state  of  things  which  the  committee  deem  puts 
it -out  of  their  power  to  proceed  further  .  .  .  without 
surrendering  the  rights  of  this  body  to  the  usurpation 
of  another  body." 

Thursday,  the  birthday  of  Washington,  was  com 
memorated  by  the  two  Houses  assembling  in  the  Hall 
of  Representatives  with  solemn  pomp  and  ceremony 
(which,  it  was  thought,  parodied  the  pomp  and  cere 
mony  with  which  the  obsequies  of  the  revered  Lincoln 
had  been  celebrated  only  ten  days  before)  to  honor  the 
memory  of  Henry  Winter  Davis,  the  master  spirit  of 
the  opposition  to  Lincoln's  policy  of  reconstruction. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  22d  was  a  great  day  for  the  sup 
porters  of  the  President.  They  were  bestirring  them 
selves  everywhere  throughout  the  country,  holding 
public  meetings,  firing  guns  over  his  victory,  telegraph 
ing  him  words  of  cheer.  In  the  evening  there  was  a 
large  gathering  of  Union  men  in  the  city  of  New  York, 
addressed  by  Secretaries  Seward  and  Dennison ;  and 
another  in  Washington,  which  at  the  close  of  the  pro- 

*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  943-4. 


THE    FIRST    VETO  51 

ceedings  marched  to  the  White  House  to  greet  the 
President;  a  multitude  of  people  joining  it  on  the  way. 
,  In  response  to  the  shouts  of  the  crowd,  Johnson  ap- 
\  peared  on  the  portico  and  made  a  speech. 

There  had  been  two  extremes  (we  give  but  a  part  of 
his  remarks),  one  who  were  willing  to  break  up  the  gov 
ernment  to  save  slavery;  the  other  to  break  up  the  gov 
ernment  to  destroy  slavery.  He  had  been  against  both. 
He  was  for  the  government,  slavery  or  no  slavery.  The 
attempt  of  the  one  extreme  had  been  frustrated  and  they 
now  acknowledge  its  futility  and  ask  to  be  restored.  He 
was  in  favor  of  opening  the  door  of  the  Union.  Still, 
maintaining  that  "the  conscious,  intelligent  traitors" 
should  be  punished,  he  believed  in  amnesty  to  the  multi 
tude.  But  "the  other  extreme  are  now  attempting  to 
concentrate  all  power  in  the  hands  of  a  few  at  the  federal 
head  and  thereby  bring  about  a  consolidation  of  the  republic 
which  is  equally  objectionable  to  its  dissolution."  "An 
irresponsible  central  directory  has  assumed  all  the  powers 
of  Congress  and  taken  from  the  Senate  and  the  House  their 
separate  power  to  judge  of  the  qualification  of  their  mem 
bers,"  thus  admitting  a  State  to  be  out  of  the  Union,  which 
was  the  very  thing  we  all  had  been  fighting  against— in 
sisting  that  this  a  State  could  not  do.  "I  have  opposed  the 
Davises,  the  Toombses,  the  Slidells— but  when  I  perceive  on 
the  other  hand  men"— so  far  had  he  proceeded  when  there 
were  loud  cries  for  names— "Call  them  traitors."  "We 
know  them."  "Give  us  the  names." 

"Well,"  he  hesitated,  "I  suppose  I  could  give  them. 
I  look  upon  them  as  being  as  much  opposed  to  the  funda 
mental  principles  of  this  government  and  believe  they  are 
as  much  laboring  to  prevent  and  destroy  them  as  were  the 
men  who  fought  against  us. ' ' 


52     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

"What  are  their  names?"  interrupted  a  voice.  On  this 
the  President,  amid  the  most  vociferous  shouting,  burst  out : 
"I  say  Thaddeus  Stevens  of  Pennsylvania— I  say  Charles 
'¥~  Sumner— I  say  Wendell  Phillips  and  others  of  the  same 
stripe."  Another  voice  here  cried  out:  "Give  it  to 
Forney!"  (the  secretary  of  the  Senate  and  editor  of  two 
papers  "both  daily"  and  both  filled  with  abuse  of  the 
President).  And  the  President  replied,  "I  do  not  waste 
my  ammunition  on  dead  ducks. ' '  He  continued :  "  I  do  not 
intend  to  be  bullied  by  my  enemies;  what  usurpation  has 
Andrew  Johnson  been  guilty  of  that,  as  a  gentleman 
(Stevens)  had  said,  ought  to  cost  me  my  head?"  The  same 
man  had  said  also  that  we  were  in  the  midst  of  an  earth 
quake.  "Yes  there  is  an  earthquake  coming — the  ground 
swell  of  popular  judgment."  In  allusion  to  his  own  career, 
he  was  saying:  "Beginning  from  alderman  and  running 
through  all  branches  of  the  Legislature,"  when  he  was 
interrupted  by  a  voice,  "from  tailor  up"  -"Yes,"  he  said, 
"and  when  I  was  a  tailor  I  alwrays  was  punctual  and  did 
good  work — no  patchwork,  but  a  whole  suit."  Passing 
by  this  "little  f acetiousness, "  as  he  termed  it,  he  came  back 
to  the  charge  of  usurpation : 

"They  may  talk  about  beheading  and  usurpation,  but 
when  I  am  beheaded  I  want  the  American  people  to  wit 
ness.  "  "  I  do  not  want  by  innuendoes,  by  indirect  remarks 
in  high  places,  to  see  the  man  who  has  assassination  in  his 
bosom  exclaim  'This  presidential  obstacle  must  be  gotten 
out  of  the  way. '  I  make  use  of  very  strong  language  when 
I  say  that  I  have  no  doubt  the  intention  was  to  incite  assas 
sination  and  so  get  out  of  the  way  the  obstacle  from  place 
and  power. ' ' 

"I  know  they  are  willing  to  wound  but  they  are  afraid 
to  strike."  "I  tell  the  opponents  of  the  government — I 


THE    FIRST    VETO  53 

care  not  from  what  quarter  they  come— whether  from  the 
East,  West,  North  or  South— you  who  are  engaged  in  the 
work  of  breaking  up  the  government  by  amendments  to 
the  Constitution— they  may  seem  to  succeed  for  a  time,  but 
their  attempts  will  be  futile. 

"They  may  think  now  it  can  be  done  by  a  concurrent 
resolution;  but  when  it  is  submitted  to  the  popular  judg 
ment  and  to  the  popular  will,  they  will  find  that  they  might 
as  well  undertake  to  introduce  a  resolution  to  repeal  the  law 
of  gravity  as  to  keep  this  Union  from  being  restored." 

With  this  allusion  to  the  latest  move  of  his  opponents 
and  an  exhortation  to  the  people  to  stand  by  the  Con 
stitution  and  the  principles  of  the  fathers,  the  Presi 
dent  retired  amidst  the  acclamation  of  his  hearers.* 

*  Though  his  speech  may  have  weakened  the  effect 
of  the  veto  message  on  the  country,  none  the  less  did 
its  audacity  astound  the  Eadicals.  They  awoke  to  the 
certitude  that  the  President  meant  to  fight  for  his 
policy  with  all  the  resources  of  his  great  office,  and  that 
to  gain  his  end  he  would  not  scruple  to  rend  their 
party  in  twain  and  make  an  alliance  with  its  rival. 
If  the  calm  logical  tone  of  the  message  drove  them  from 
their  propriety,  the  rugged  defiance  of  the  speech 
brought  them  to  a  realization  of  the  true  nature  of  the 
conflict.  The  twenty-second  day  of  February,  1866,  ^f 
began  a  new  epoch  in  their  calendar.  On  that  day,  \ 
the  chief  of  political  apostates  flung  his  glove  into  the 
face  of  the  party  of  freedom  and  returned  to  the 
horrors  of  his  old  creed.  From  that  day,  he  became 

*  McPh.,  Recon.,  p.  58 ;  cf.  newspapers  of  the  day. 


54     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

an  outlaw  undeserving  of  quarter.  From  that  day,  they 
began  to  plot  the  purging  of  the  Senate  and  his  im 
peachment  and  removal.  The  part  of  the  speech  they 
more  particularly  resented  was  the  imputation  cast 
upon  them  of  a  design  to  assassinate  the  man  they  desig 
nated  as  "the  acting  President,"  and,  in  retaliation 
for  so  baseless  a  charge,  they  went  so  far  as  to  insin 
uate  that  the  man  who  made  it  had  himself  conspired 
with  assassins  the  death  of  his  predecessor.  The  day 
after  the  speech  the  Senate  took  up  the  concurrent 
resolution,  which  the  House  in  a  fit  of  spleen  had 
rushed  through  the  day  after  the  veto,  but  it  was  not 
until  the  second  day  of  March  that  it  was  brought  to  a 
vote.  The  week's  debate  was  chiefly  remarkable  by 
reason  of  a  speech  by  John  Sherman,  which  may  be 
called  an  elaborate  apology  for  the  course  of  the  Presi 
dent.  He  protested  that  Congress  and  the  President 
ought  to  agree  on  some  plan  of  reconstruction.  If  they 
did  not  in  a  reasonable  time,  either  House  can  and  will 
exercise  its  undoubted  power  to  admit  senators  and 
representatives.  We  have  failed  in  our  constitutional 
duty  and  have  no  right  to  arraign  Andrew  Johnson  for 
trying  to  do  his  by  following  the  foot-steps  of  his 
lamented  predecessor.  The  senator  declared  the 
course  of  the  President  on  the  subject  of  negro  suffrage 
was  not  a  subject  for  censure.  With  the  President's 
antecedents  he  could  not  have  done  otherwise.  "Up 
to  and  including  the  recent  veto  message  .  .  .  there 
had  been  no  act  of  Andrew  Johnson  which  in  my  judg 
ment  was  inconsistent  with  the  high  obligations  he 
owed  to  the  great  Union  party/'  While  he  regretted 


THE    FIRST    VETO  55 

the  speech  of  the  twenty-second  and  condemned  some 
passages  in  it  as  reported,  he  could  not  refrain  from 
palliation.  The  President,  he  reminded  the  Senate, 
"is  thoroughly  combative  in  his  disposition;  he  has 
been  fighting  all  the  days  of  his  life ;  the  very  courage 
with  which  he  resists  opponents  whenever  they  present 
themselves,  we  commended  five  years  ago  as  the  highest 
virtue  of  Andrew  Johnson 's  life";  "Wendell  Phillips 
has  arraigned  and  abused  the  President  in  a  shameless 
manner"— classing  him  with  Arnold  and  Burr,  saying 
"that  he  had  taken  Jeff.  Davis 's  place  as  a  leader  of 
the  confederacy,"  and  threatening  "impeachment"; 
Simmer  had  let  drop  ' '  an  expression  about '  whitewash 
ing'  which  greatly  wounded  and  irritated  the  mind  of 
the  President ' ' ;  and  ' i  Mr.  Stevens  proclaimed  Andrew 
Johnson  to  be  an  alien  enemy,  a  citizen  of  a  foreign 
State,  in  the  convention  that  nominated  him  as  Vice- 
President,  and  therefore  not  now  legally  President"; 
"in  a  recent  debate  he  made  use  of  an  expression  that 
wrould  irritate  any  man,  especially  when  coming  from 
a  leader  in  the  House  of  Representatives"— quoting 
the  remark  of  Stevens  that  if  a  British  King  had  so 
violated  the  privileges  of  Parliament  it  would  have 
cost  him  his  head.  ' '  Regarding  the  President  as  he  is, 
a  man  who  never  turned  his  back  upon  a  foe,  personal 
or  political,  a  man  whose  gre/at  virtue  has  been  his 
combative  propensity;  as  a  man  who  repelled  insults 
here  on  the  very  spot  where  I  now  stand,  when  they 
came  from  traitors  arming  themselves  for  the  fight; 
can  you  ask  him,  because  he  is  President,  to  submit  to 
insult?  Every  sentiment  of  manhood,  every  dictate 


56     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

of  nature  would  induce  a  man  when  he  heard  these 
words  uttered,  in  the  heat  of  passion  to  thrust  them 
back."  He  exhorted  the  Senate  to  "cast  over  the 
remarks  the  mantle  of  charity,"  and  pronounced  what 
was  left  of  the  speech,  the  "ideas"  in  it,  deserving 
the  grave  "consideration  of  the  Senate."  He  sym 
pathized  very  much  with  the  feelings  of  the  President 
in  regard  to  the  long-delayed  admission  of  his  own  state. 
Tennessee  "was  reconstructed  .  .  .  before  the  death 
of  President  Lincoln,  under  his  guiding  hand,  with 
Andrew  Johnson  as  his  main  agent."  "Its  govern 
ment  was  reorganized  before  President  Johnson  came 
here.  It  was  organized  by  his  own  personal  friends 
who  shared  his  fortunes.  The  men  who  are  sent  here 
to  represent  Tennessee  are  as  true  and  loyal  as  either 
of  you  Senators,  without  exception."  "I  think  it  is 
the  common  feeling  and  desire  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  whom  we  represent,  the  mass  of  the 
Union  people,  that  she  should  be  admitted  as  soon  as 
possible."  There  were  but  two  things  which  he  could 
not  forgive.  The  President  "is  bound  as  a  principle 
of  honor  to  select  as  the  agents  of  the  Government 
those  who  shared  with  him  the  political  feelings  which 
gave  rise  to  his  election."  "If  he  seeks  fellowship, 
counsel,  aid  or  association  from  or  with  those  who  either 
took  up  arms  in  the  recent  contest,  or  who,  regarding 
the  war  as  a  failure,  would  have  passively  yielded  to 
the  rebels,  he  commits  an  offense  from  which  no  man 
occupying  his  high  position  can  or  will  recover." 

'  *  This  is  no  time  to  quarrel  with  the  Chief  Magistrate 
unless  we  are  compelled  to  do  so  by  his  base  betrayal 


THE    FIRST    VETO  57 

of  the  obligations  lie  imposed  upon  himself  when  he 
became  our  candidate." 

Xear  the  close  of  this  debate  Garreit  Davis  of  Ken 
tucky  enunciated  a  startling  proposition : 

' '  The  President  has  the  right  to  ascertain  and  decide 
what  body  of  men  is  the  Senate  and  what  the  House  of 
Representatives,  when  there  are  two  bodies  claiming  to  be 
such.  He  is  to  communicate  with  the  two  Houses  of  Con 
gress.  Before  he  can  communicate  he  must  ascertain  what 
men  constitute  the  Senate  and  what  men  constitute  the 
House.  It  is  his  right  to  do  so,  and  the  people  of  America 
will  sustain  him.  ...  It  ought  to  have  been  done  at  the 
beginning  of  the  session.  .  .  . 

1 '  Whenever  Andrew  Johnson  chooses  to  say  to  the  South 
ern  Senators,  'Get  together  with  the  Democrats  and  the 
Conservatives  of  the  Senate,  and  if  you  constitute  a 
majority  I  will  recognize  you  as  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States,'  what  then  will  become  of  you  gentlemen?  You 
will  quietly  come  in  and  form  a  part  of  the  Senate,  "f 

Here  was  treason  most  foul  uttered  in  the  Senate- 
house!  The  radicals  could  not  get  over  it.  Howard 
denounced  it  as  "revolutionary,  unconstitutional,  and 
treasonable";  Wilson,  in  a  speech  of  a  half  hour's 
length,  deified  the  Republican  party — "embracing," 
as  he  said,  "in  its  ranks  more  of  moral  and  intellectual 
worth  than  was  ever  embodied  in  any  political  organiza 
tion  in  any  age  or  in  any  land";  "created  by  no  man 
or  set  of  men,  but  brought  into  being  by  Almighty  God 

*  For  Sherman's  speech,  see  Globe,  id.,  Appendix,  p.  124. 
t  Id.,  App.,  pp.  300-4. 


58     IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Himself";  and  endowed  by  the  Creator  with  all 
political  power  and  every  office  under  Heaven.* 

The  concurrent  resolution  then  passed  the  Senate  by 
a  vote  of  29  to  18 ;  Lane  of  Kansas,  Morgan  and  Stewart 
still  with  the  President. 

This  was  the  counter-stroke  to  the  veto.  The  Ex 
ecutive  might  bar  the  passage  of  measures  which  the 
Congress  desired  to  enact.  But  "the  Central  Direc 
tory"  (as  Senator  Cowan  said)  "carried  on  its  girdle 
the  keys  of  the  Union, ' '  and  unless  it  unlocked  the  door, 
the  * '  wayward  sisters ' '  could  not  get  in. 

*  Globe,  App.,  pp.  140,  142. 


SECTION  IV 

THE  STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  TWO-THIRDS 

BUT  a  deadlock  on  so  vital  a  question,  instead  of 
proving  fatal  to  the  President,  was  the  one  thing  more 
than  likely  to  prove  fatal  to  the  party  of  the  Congress. 
By  the  masses  of  the  Northern  people  no  plea  in  ex 
cuse  for  the  non-restoration  of  the  constitutional  Union 
for  which  their  soldiers  had  fought  would  be  admitted 
—not  negro  suffrage,  not  punishment  of  treason,  not 
salvation  of  a  particular  party.  The  President  had  a 
plan  which  seemed  to  point  directly  to  the  attainment 
of  this  supreme  object  of  the  popular  desire.  The 
leaders  of  the  Congress  party  had  none.  Besides,  to 
all  appearances  the  administration  was  a  unit  as  yet, 
and  moved  as  a  unit.  Seward,  deaf  to  the  appeals 
of  the  radicals  who  were  enraged  by  the  President's 
speech,  stood  only  the  closer  to  his  chief.  Stanton, 
whatever  he  may  have  been  doing  in  private,  in  public 
betrayed  no  signs  of  disaffection.  The  residence  of 
Secretary  Harlan  was  pointed  out  as  the  place  where 
the  more  belligerent  radicals  did  congregate.  But, 
with  this  doubtful  exception,  the  Cabinet  seemed  firm 
in  the  support  of  the  President.  On  the  other  hand, 
among  the  Congressional  majority  there  were  every 
where  signs  of  division  and  disintegration.  The  one 
remedy  proposed  by  the  Joint  Committee,  indefinite 
and  dilatory  as  it  was,  was  killed  in  the  Senate  by 

59 


60      IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  radicals.  Sumner  read  a  second  studied  speech 
against  it,  from  which  Fessenden  in  his  reply  culled 
the  following  "flowers  of  rhetoric"  with  which  the 
senator  from  Massachusetts  assailed  a  constitutional 
amendment  which  two-thirds  of  his  political  associates 
in  the  House  had  approved:  "Compromise  of  human 
rights;"  "violating  the  national  faith;"  "dishonoring 
the  name  of  the  Republic ; "  "  bad  mutton ; "  "  muscipu- 
lar  abortion;"  "new  anathema  maranatha;"  "abom 
ination  ; "  "  paragon  and  master-piece  of  ingratitude ; ' ' 
"abortive  of  all  good;"  "shocking  to  moral  sense;" 
"the  very  Koh-i-noor  of  blackness;"  "essential 
uncleanliness ; "  "disgusting  ordure;"  "loathsome 
stench ; ' '  the  men  who  support  it  * '  Harpies ; "  "  Pon 
tius  Pilate  with  Judas  on  his  back."  "You  are  now 
hurrying  to  drop  into  the  text"  (of  the  Constitution) 
"a  political  obscenity."  "Here  is  nothing  less  than 
a  mighty  House  of  ill-fame,  which  it  is  proposed  to 
license  constitutionally  for  a  political  consideration." 

The  amendment  received  but  twenty-five  votes,  not 
near  the  necessary  two-thirds.  Nine  Democrats,  eight 
Johnson-Republicans  and  four  ultra  radicals  made  up 
the  twenty-two  noes.* 

The  Civil  Rights  bill,  which  passed  the  Senate  on 
the  heels  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  bill,  provoked  in 
the  House  dissensions  of  a  different  character.  Many 
Republican  members  entertained  doubts  of  the  consti 
tutionality  of  the  first  section  making  negroes  citizens. 
Many  feared  its  provisions  would  furnish  a  pretext  for 

*  Fessenden  in  Globe,  1st  sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  1278.  Simmer's  speech, 
id.,  p.  1224. 


C- 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  TWO-THIRDS  61 

forcing  negro  suffrage  on  the  Northern  states— a  policy 
their  constituents  would  not  stand  as  yet.  It  was  not 
until  the  thirteenth  of  March,  after  postponement  and 
amendment  after  amendment,  that  the  majority  made 
up  its  mind  and  passed  the  bill. 

Under  such  stringent  circumstances,  the  leaders  were 
not  slow  in  recognizing  the  imperative  necessity  of  ac 
tion.  Go  back  they  would  not.  They  dared  not  stand 
still.  Move  forward  they  must.  A  majority  in  both 
Houses  they  had;  but,  with  only  a  majority,  they  could 
neither  do  even  so  much  as  propose  a  constitutional 
amendment,  nor,  in  the  face  of  a  disapproving  execu 
tive,  make  a  single  law.  They  must  pull  themselves 
together,  formulate  a  coherent  and  complete  plan  of 
reconstruction  which  would  command  the  united  sup 
port  of  the  party;  and,  as  an  essential  preliminary, 
they  must  capture  the  machinery  by  which  their  plan, 
once  formulated  and  backed  by  disciplined  unanimity, 
could  be  made  the  law  of  the  land.  In  a  word,  a  steady 
reliable  two-thirds  majority  in  each  House— this  was 
the  need  of  needs,  without  which  all  else  was  useless 
and  their  eventual  overthrow  certain. 

With  the  House,  there  would  be  little  difficulty,  the 
normal  majority  there  being  much  more  than  two- 
thirds,  and,  though  somewhat  fluctuating  on  such  tender 
questions  as  negro  suffrage  and  the  admission  of  Ten 
nessee,  safe  enough  for  any  measure  the  party  could 
unite  upon  in  caucus.  In  consequence  of  the  veto  and  u 
the  speech  of  the  22d,  all  minor  divisions  were  for 
gotten  in  bitter  animosity  to  Andrew  Johnson,  and  the 
majority  was  content  to  follow  Stevens  to  any  length 


62     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

in  abusing  the  President.  \J^was  at  this  period  that 
the  habit,  persisted  in  to  the  last,  of  studied  disrespect 
and  open  insult  to  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation 
was  contracted:  e.  g.,  putting  his  messages  aside  with 
out  deigning  to  read  them,  jeering  at  every  mention  of 
his  name,  insisting  that  he  was  but  a  Vice-President 
acting  as  President  because  of  the  assassination  of  the 
rightful  owner  of  the  title;  and  allowing  any  ribaldry 
the  press  might  heap  upon  him  to  be  read  from  the 
clerk's  desk  amid  the  mocking  laughter  and  applause 
of  both  floor  and  galleries.  On  a  Saturday  (March 
10th)  when  the  House  met  for  debate  only,  "Old 
Thad,"  as  Stevens  was  affectionately  called,  being 
interrupted  in  an  ironical  eulogy  of  the  President's 
"integrity,  patriotism,  courage  and  good  intentions," 
by  an  inquiry  whether  it  was  possible  he  was  the  Thad- 
deus  Stevens  mentioned  in  the  President's  speech,  in 
formed  the  laughing  House  as  a  confidential  communi 
cation  that  that  speech  never  was  delivered;  it  was  a 
myth,  one  of  the  grandest  hoaxes  ever  perpetrated, 
more  successful  than  the  moon  hoax.  "I  am  glad  to 
have  at  this  time  the  opportunity  (although  I  do  not 
wish  the  matter  to  go  before  the  public,  for  they  might 
misunderstand  my  motives)  to  exonerate  the  President 
from  ever  having  made  that  speech.  It  is  a  part  of 
the  cunning  contrivance  of  the  copperhead  party,  who 
have  been  persecuting  our  President  since  the  4th  of 
March  last.  Why,  sir,  taking  advantage  of  an  unfor 
tunate  incident  which  happened  on  that  occasion,  they 
have  been  constantly  denouncing  him  as  addicted  to 
low  and  degrading  vices."  Sending  it  to  the  clerk's 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  TWO-THIRDS  63 

desk,  lie  had  read  an  extract  from  the  New  York  World 
of  March  7,  1865,  in  which  Andrew  Johnson  is  de 
scribed  as  "an  insolent  drunken  brute,  in  comparison 
with  whom  even  Caligula's  horse  was  respectable"; 
and  then  denounced  the  report  as  "a  vile  slander"  got 
up  by  "the  copperheads";— the  Republicans  never 
believed  it,  but  "if  these  slanderers  can  make  the 
people  believe  the  President  ever  made  that  speech 
then  they  have  made  out  their  case."* 

So  much  to  show  the  temper  of  the  House.  But  it 
was  otherwise  in  the  Senate.  In  that  body  lay 
real  nodus  of  the  situation.  It  was  the  Senate  that 
shelved  the.  bill  granting  suffrage  to  the  freedmen  of 
the  District  of  Columbia.  It  was  the  Senate  that  killed 
the  amendment  which  the  Joint  Committee  elaborated 
and  two-thirds  of  the  House  adopted.  It  was  in  the 
Senate  that  the  presence  of  a  minority  of  more  than 
one-third  made  the  veto  of  the  Freedmen 's  Bureau 
bill  final.  Of  the  fifty  senators,  eleven  were  Demo 
crats,  four  (Cowan,  Dixon,  Doolittle  and  Norton) 
were  out-and-out  supporters  of  the  President,  three 
(Lane  of  Kansas,  Stewart  and  Morgan)  were  more  or 
less  inclined  to  favor  the  administration,  while  the  two 
"West  Virginia  senators  could  be  relied  on  by  neither 
side;  making  a  total  of  twenty  and  leaving  but  thirty 
steady  Republicans— four  short  of  two-thirds.  JAs  it 
happened  one  senator  from  each  side  was  absent  at 
this  crisis.  Foot  of  Vermont— the  father  of  the  Senate 
—had  not  been  in  his  seat  since  the  sixteenth  of  Febru 
ary,  and  was  lying  hopelessly  ill  at  his  residence  in  the 

*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  1307-8. 


64     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

capital.  Wright  of  Xew  Jersey  had  gone  to  his  home 
in  that  state  as  long  ago  as  February  the  eighth,  as 
announced  by  his  colleague,  "exceedingly  ill."  So 
that  the  senators  present  nurnbered  forty-eight—one- 
third  being  sixteen,  two-thirds  thirty-two.  Two  cer 
tain  votes  were  absolutely  indispensable;  three  would 
be  felicitous  to  guard  against  the  possibility  of  the 
return  of  Wright  before  the  lingering  death  of  Foot 
gave  the  legislature  of  Vermont  the  opportunity  for 
which  it  sat  ready  to  send  on  a  reliable  successor ;  four 
would  make  everything  safe  and  sound. 

Two  methods  of  recruiting  the  majority  in  the  Senate 
were  available;  one  by  the  admission  of  new  states, 
the  other  by  turning  out  minority  senators  to  make 
place  for  others  more  agreeable.  The  first  method  was 
inconvenient  because  it  required  the  passage  of  a  law; 
and  the  passage  of  a  law  required  the  assent  of  the 
President  or  the  presence  of  the  two-thirds  to  obtain 
which  was  the  final  cause  of  the  manoeuvre.  The  second 
method  was  encumbered  with  no  such  troublesome 
formality,  requiring  only  the  presence  of  a  majority 
sufficiently  unscrupulous  and  unflinching.  Despite  the 
greater  facility  of  the  latter,  the  party  managers  in  the 
first  instance  resorted  to  the  more  difficult  method,  for 
one  of  two  reasons;  either  they  had  not  yet  been  able 
to  ferret  out  what  they  considered  a  sufficiently  plaus 
ible  case  for  the  application  of  the  turning-out  process, 
or— which  is  the  more  probable  reason— they  felt  that 
on  the  question  of  the  admission  of  a  petitioning  ter 
ritory  of  the  West  they  could  rely  on  the  support  of 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  TWO-THIRDS  65 

western  senators  hitherto  favorable  to  the  President. 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  two  territories  at  the  moment  were 
applying  for  admission— Colorado  and  Nebraska.  In  the 
case  of  Colorado,  her  people  in  the  summer  of  the  year 
1864  rejected  the  constitution  framed  and  submitted  in 
pursuance  of  her  enabling  act  by  a  majority  of  three 
to  one  out  of  a  total  vote  of  6,192.  A  portion  of  her 
inhabitants,  however,  without  obtaining  any  additional 
authority  from  Congress,  held  a  convention  of  their  own 
in  the  summer  of  the  following  year,  adopted  a  consti 
tution,  submitted  it  to  the  people  and  secured  its  ratifi 
cation  by  a  majority  of  155  out  of  a  vote  of  5,895.  A 
legislature,  having  been  chosen,  sent  two  senators  to 
Washington  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  session, 
but  the  President  declined  to  proclaim  the  territory  a 
state  and  submitted  the  whole  matter  to  the  Congress. 
A  bill  was  pending  before  the  Senate  for  her  admission 
introduced  by  Stewart  and  advocated  by  him  and  Lane 
of  Kansas,  but  hitherto  it  had  been  set  aside  for  more 
important  measures.  Discerning  the  advantage  given 
them  by  the  committal  of  these  two  erring  senators, 
the  leaders  in  the  movement  now  brought  the  bill  to 
the  front.  Once  again,  however,  the  opposition  of 
Sumner,  aroused  by  the  presence  of  the  word  "white" 
in  the  constitution  of  the  proposed  state,  spoiled  his 
party's  scheme.  He  laid  bare  every  weak  point  in 
the  case—  the  illegality  of  the  second  convention  and  the 
second  election;  the  paucity  of  the  population,  not  ex 
ceeding  25,000,  whereas  the  existing  ratio  for  a  repre 
sentative  wTas  127,000 ;  and  although,  as  was  anticipated, 


66     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Stewart  and  Lane  voted  for  the  bill,  it  got  but  fourteen 
votes  in  its  favour.* 

Dropping  for  the  present  their  abortive  experiment 
to  recruit  the  Senate  by  the  first  method,  the  managers, 
turning  to  the  second,  lit  upon  a  rare  chance  of  deplet 
ing  still  further  the  already  scant  forces  of  their  ad 
versaries.  At  the  opening  of  the  session  the  credentials 
of  John  P.  Stockton  as  senator  from  New  Jersey 
were  presented  by  his  colleague  and  lie  was  sworn  in. 
No  question  was  made  as  to  his  right  to  his  seat;  but 
senator  Cowan,  by  request,  presented  a  protest  of 
several  members  of  the  legislature  of  New  Jersey, 
which,  without  being  read,  was  laid  on  the  table  whence 
it  found  its  way  to  the  judiciary  committee.  Apparently 
no  importance  whatever  was  attached  to  the  protest 
and  it  attracted  no  public  notice.  On  the  thirtieth  of 
January,  Trumbull  laid  before  the  Senate  a  report  of 
the  committee  recommending  the  adoption  of  a  resolu 
tion  declaring  Stockton  entitled  to  his  seat.  The  report 
carried  the  signature  of  every  member  of  the  committee 
except  Clark  who  manifested  his  dissent  in  no  other 
way.  The  resolution  was  read  but  not  acted  on,  and 
the  matter  passed  off  without  comment.  Nothing 
more  was  heard  of  it  until  the  failure  to  pass  the  Freed- 
men's  Bureau  bill  over  the  veto,  when  Clark  began  to 
press  his  political  associates  on  the  committee  to  bring 
up  the  resolution.  Accordingly,  after  the  House 
amendments  to  the  Civil  Rights  bill  had  been  concurred 
in  and  that  measure  sent  to  meet  an  inevitable  veto,  on 

*  Sumner,  Globe,  id.,  p.  1327  et  seq.     Population,  id.,  1353. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  TWO-THIRDS  67 

Thursday  (March  22),  the  report  and  protest  were  read 
at  length,  and,  thereupon,  Clark  moved  to  substitute 
for  the  resolution  reported  another  declaring  that  Stock 
ton  was  not  entitled  to  his  seat ;  and  upon  this  negative 
proposition  opened  the  debate. 

By  great  good  fortune,  the  facts  lying  at  the  bottom 
of  the  almost  incredible  piece  of  injustice  about  to  be 
narrated  are  matters  of  record  and  down  to  the  minutest 
detail  never  for  a  moment  the  subject  of  dispute.* 

On  the  fifteenth  day  of  February,  1865,  the  legisla 
ture  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey,  as  by  the  law  it  was 
required  to  do,  met  in  joint-meeting  to  elect  a  successor 
to  John  C.  TenEyck,  whose  term  as  senator  of  the 
United  States  expired  on  the  ensuing  fourth  day  of 
March.  The  constitution  of  the  state  in  the  clauses 
empowering  the  legislature  to  appoint  certain  state 
officers  designated  the  two  branches  when  meeting 
together  for  such  purposes,  "The  Legislature  in  Joint- 
meeting  ' ' ;  and  from  time  immemorial  i '  the  Legislature 
in  Joint-meeting "  had  prescribed  rules  for  the  govern 
ment  of  its  proceedings.  The  legislature  was  composed 
of  a  senate  of  twenty-one  and  an  assembly  of  sixty 
members  numbering  on  joint  ballot  eighty-one.  There 
being  a  vacancy  caused  by  death,  the  joint-meeting  of 
the  fifteenth  of  February,  after  changing  a  rule  as 
hereafter  stated,  adjourned  to  the  first  of  March,  and 
then  to  the  fifteenth,  by  which  day,  the  vacancy  having 
been  filled,  its  numbers  were  complete.  In  the  Senate 

*  For  facts  in  Stockton  case,  see  Globe,  id.,  p.  1564  et  seq.  Journal 
of  N.  J.  Leg.,  id.,  p.  1669.  Vote,  id.,  p.  1677-9. 


68     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

were  thirteen  Democrats  and  eight  Republicans ;  in  the 
Assembly  there  was  a  tie:  30  to  30;  so  that  on  a  joint 
ballot  the  legislature  was  Democratic  by  five.  There 
would  have  been  no  hitch  in  the  election  of  a  Democrat 
had  it  not  been  for  the  fact  that  nine  Democratic  mem 
bers,  having  refused  to  go  into  the  caucus  which  chose 
John  P.  Stockton  as  the  party's  candidate,  refused  to 
vote  for  him  after  he  was  so  chosen.  At  its  first  session 
-February  15— probably  because  of  the  closeness  of 
the  contest,  the  joint-meeting  changed  the  existing  rule 
which  required  only  a  majority  of  the  votes  cast  to 
elect,  to  the  more  stringent  rule  requiring  a  majority 
of  all  the  members  elected  to  the  legislature ;  and,  under 
this  change,  it  became  impossible  for  any  candidate 
to  be  elected  as  long  as  the  bolting  Democrats  held  out 
and  scattered  their  votes.  Stockton  could  muster,  ap 
parently,  but  thirty-four  out  of  the  forty-three  Demo 
crats.  TenEyck,  the  choice  of  the  Republicans,  could 
get  but  thirty-eight  if  he  got  the  full  Republican 
strength.  The  certainty  of  the  dead-lock  being  per 
ceived,  the  first  business  of  the  adjourned  session  of 
the  fifteenth  of  March  was  a  motion  to  rescind  the  rule 
adopted  at  the  first  meeting  requiring  a  majority  of  all 
the  members  elected,  and  to  adopt  in  its  stead  an 
entirely  new  rule:  "That  any  candidate  receiving  a 
plurality  of  the  votes  of  the  members  present  should 
be  declared  duly  elected."  This  movement,  if  not 
indeed  initiated,  was  supported  by  the  Republican 
members  who  anticipated  that  the  proposed  change 
would  result  in  the  election  of  their  own  candidate— 
he  apparently  being  sure  of  a  larger  number  of  votes 


STRUGGLE   FOR  THE  TWO-THIRDS  69 

than  his  strongest  competitor  could  get.  When,  how 
ever,  they  saw  six  of  the  bolting  Democrats  voting  in 
the  affirmative,  the  eight  or  ten  Republicans  who  had 
already  voted/  hastened  to  change  their  votes  to  the 
negative— all  but  one,  who  remained  steadfast.  The 
new  rule,  consequently,  was  adopted  by  a  majority  of 
one  of  all  the  members  elected— eleven  senators  and 
thirty  assemblymen  in  the  affirmative,  ten  senators  and 
thirty  assemblymen  in  the  negative,  three  Democrats 
voting  against  it  and  one  Republican  for  it— the  Re 
publican,  therefore,  casting  the  decisive  vote.  The 
joint-meeting  thereupon  proceeded  to  ballot  for  United 
States  senator;  and  upon  the  first  ballot  John  P. 
Stockton  received  forty  votes,  James  W.  Wall  one, 
Peter  D.  Vroom  one,  and  Henry  S.  Little  one— making 
up  the  forty-three  Democratic  members;  John  C.  Ten- 
Eyck  received  thirty-seven  and  F.  T.  Frelinghuysen 
one— making  up  the  thirty-eight  Republicans.  And,  in 
pursuance  of  the  rule  just  adopted  by  a  majority  of  the 
legislature  in  joint -meeting,  the  presiding  officer  rising 
in  his  place  declared  the  Hon.  John  P.  Stockton  duly 
elected  United  States  senator  for  the  term  of  six  years 
from  the  fourth  of  March  instant,  with  the  unanimous 
acquiescence  of  the  assemblage — not  a  single  protest, 
objection  or  even  a  dissenting  murmur  being  heard. 
And,  then,  after  appointing  several  state  officers,  the 
legislature  in  joint -meeting  adjourned  without  day. 
The  legislature  sitting  in  senate  and  assembly  con 
tinued  in  session  for  fifteen  days  longer  and  no  note 
of  dissatisfaction  was  sounded.  The  protest,  there 
fore,  must  have  been  an  after-thought.  The  document 


70     IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

itself  was  nominally  dated  as  early  as  the  twentieth  of 
March,  it  is  true,  and  bore  the  signature  of  every  Re 
publican  member  of  the  legislature,  including  even  his 
whose  single  vote  carried  the  plurality  rule ;  but  it  was 
not  presented  to  the  legislature,  Stockton  heard  noth 
ing  of  it  until  months  afterwards,  and  some,  at  least, 
of  the  signatures  were  not  put  to  it  until  within  a  month 
of  the  meeting  of  Congress,  and  by  that  time  it  was 
known  that  the  next  legislature  would  be  Republican  on 
joint  ballot. 

The  report  of  the  judiciary  committee  upon  the 
facts  as  above  stated  reached  the  conclusion :  i  *  That 
in  the  absence  of  any  law  either  of  Congress  or  the 
State  on  the  subject,  a  joint-meeting  of  the  two  Houses 
of  a  Legislature,  duly  assembled  and  vested  with  au 
thority  to  elect  a  United  States  Senator,  has  a  right  to 
prescribe  that  a  plurality  may  elect;  on  the  principle 
that  the  adoption  of  such  a  rule  by  a  majority  vote  in 
the  first  instance  makes  the  act  subsequently  done  in 
pursuance  of  such  majority  vote  its  own." 

Clark,  in  opening  the  debate,  maintained  that,  in 
the  absence  of  a  statute,  by  what  he  called  parlia 
mentary  law,  a  majority  was  necessary  to  a  valid 
election,  and  that  the  joint-meeting  of  the  legislature 
had  no  power  by  a  mere  rule  to  abrogate  the  parlia 
mentary  Jaw;  that,  to  accomplish  such  a  modification, 
an  3fc£  passed  by  both  Houses  acting  separately  and 
signed  by  the  governor  was  indispensable.  The  whole 
contention  of  the  impugners  of  Stockton's  title  rested 
upon  the  validity  of  this  one  argument,  which  Hend- 
ricks  went  far  towards  demolishing  by  quoting  from 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE   TWO-THIRDS  71 

Gushing 's  "Law  and  Practice  of  Legislative  Assem 
blies  ' '  the  following  : 

"The  law  of  the  majority  is  universally  admitted  in  all 
legislative  assemblies,  unless  ...  a  different  rule  is  pre 
scribed  by  some  paramount  authority,  or  is  agreed  upon 
beforehand  by  the  assembly  itself,  by  which  a  smaller  num 
ber  is  permitted  ...  to  do  a  particular  act.  But  even  in 
these  cases  it  is  the  will  of  the  majority  that  governs,  be 
cause  it  is  by  the  major  vote,  in  the  first  instance,  that  the 
rule  itself  is  established." 

He  cited  also  the  cases  of  elections  of  Speaker  of  the 
House,  where,  after  a  vain  struggle  for  a  choice  by 
majority,  that  body  first  adopted  a  plurality  rule  and 
then  elected  under  it,  as  in  the  cases  of  Howell  Cobb 
and  Nathaniel  P.  Banks.  Hendricks  also  laid  great 
stress  upon  one  consideration: 

"The  joint-meeting  agreed  to  elect  by  a  plurality.  They 
did  so  elect.  The  presiding  officer  announced  the  result, 
and  there  was  no  objection  to  it.  The  convention  pro 
ceeded  to  other  business  on  the  result  being  announced, 
and  by  silence  acquiesced.  I  say  that  is  conclusive  upon 
the  question." 

And  so  it  seems  to  us. 

Sumner  urged  if  the  case  was  doubtful  the  doubt 
should  be  given— not,  it  seemed,  to  fairness  or  justice 
—but  to  "the  law  of  the  majority/'  "If  there  ever 
was  an  occasion  where  every  doubt  was  to  be  counted 
against  the  assumption  of  power,  it  is  the  present.  I 
know  very  little  of  cards,  but  I  remember  a  rule  of 
Hoyle:  'If  you  are  in  doubt  take  the  trick'  "—a  quota- 


72     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

tion,  the  accuracy  of  which  senator  McDougall  instantly 
questioned,  insisting  that  the  proper  reading  was, 
"When  you  are  in  doubt  play  trumps,"  a  direction 
which,  whether  in  Hoyle  or  not,  the  radicals,  in  this 
instance,  were  predetermined  to  follow.  When  a  vote 
came  to  be  taken  at  the  close  of  Friday  (23d  of  March) 
there  were  forty-four  senators  present;  the  absentees 
being  Dixon,  who  had  fallen  ill  and  had  not  paired, 
Foot  dying  at  his  residence  in  the  capital,  Howard, 
paired  with  VanWinkle,  Doolittle  and  Williams  paired 
with  each  other,  and  Wright,  who  before  going  home 
had  been  careful  to  secure  a  pair  with  Morrill  of  Maine 
upon  this  particular  question,  so  vital  to  his  colleague 
and  his  state.  The  Senate  had  been  thoroughly  can 
vassed  and  great  pressure  brought  upon  Morrill  to 
terminate  his  agreement,  so  much  so  that  on  the  evening 
of  the  preceding  Wednesday  he  had  yielded  so  far  as 
to  write  a  note  to  Stockton  stating  that  "the  question 
was  not  expected  to  run  on  ...  so  long,"  and  "upon 
reflection  he  thought  it  not  unreasonable  so  to  regard 
it,"  and  "to  avoid  embarrassment"  he  suggested  this 
"so  that  he  (Stockton)  might  advise  his  colleague." 
The  next  morning  (Thursday),  the  first  day  of  the 
debate,  Stockton  having  prepared  a  telegram  informing 
his  colleague  that,  "after  allowing  you  (him)  a  reason 
able  time  to  get  to  Washington,"  Morrill  would  "con 
sider  himself  at  liberty  to  vote  in  my  (Stockton's) 
case  " ;  he  read  it  over  to  Morrill,  obtained  his  approval 
of  its  contents,  and  sent  it  to  Newark,  New  Jersey.  On 
this  Friday,  a  telegram  from  Wright  was  received 
by  his  colleague  to  the  effect  that  he  was  still  confined 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE   TWO-THIRDS  73 

to  liis  room  and  could  not  be  in  Washington  until  the 
middle  of  the  next  week ;  that  he  was  uncertain  whether 
the  telegram  of  yesterday  meant  that  the  pair  was  off; 
that  he  had  heard  nothing  direct  from  Merrill  and 
trusted  he  would  adhere  to  his  agreement;  and  this 
telegram  was  immediately  communicated  to  the  senator 
from  Maine. 

Such  was  the  condition  of  the  opposing  forces  when 
the  secretary  began  to  call  the  names  of  senators  on 
Clark's  amendment.  The  intensest  excitement  pre 
vailed,  as  though  all  were  conscious  that  the  issue  of 
the  battle  between  the  President  and  the  Congress  hung 
on  the  decision  of  the  moment.  The  vote,  as  announced, 
stood  yeas  19,  nays  21;  VanWinkle,  Morrill,  Stockton 
and  Wilson  were  present  but  did  not  vote,  VanWinkle 
being  paired  with  Howard,  Morrill  still  true  to  his  pair 
with  Wright,  Stockton  for  an  obvious  reason,  and 
Wilson.  Among  the  nays  were  every  Republican 
member  of  the  judiciary  committee  except  Clark  (i.  e., 
Trumbull,  Harris,  Poland  and  Stewart),  and  such 
Republican  senators  as  Anthony,  Foster,  Henderson 
and  Morgan.  The  Clark  resolution  being  lost  by 
a  majority  of  two,  the  question  recurred  on  the 
adoption  of  the  resolution,  reported  by  the  com 
mittee,  affirming  Stockton's  right  to  his  seat.  The 
white-heat  still  continued.  The  matter  evidently  was 
not  yet  considered  closed.  Some  new  development  was 
evidently  at  hand.  When  the  roll-call  ceased,  the 
vote  stood  yeas  21,  nays  20— the  only  change  being  that 
Wilson,  who  did  not  vote  before,  now  voted  with  the 
radicals  where  he  belonged.  Then  took  place  a  scene 


74     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON  - 

brief  but  deeply  disgraceful  to  the  American  Senate. 
A  dead  set  was  made  upon  Morrill,  senator  after  sen 
ator  calling  out  to  him  to  vote.  Even  his  stately  col 
league  urged  him  to  vote.  The  boisterous  Nye  rudely 
pressed  him  to  vote.  High  above  all,  the  hoarse  voice 
of  Sumner  was  heard  ejaculating,  Vote!  Vote!  Vote! 
The  distressed  senator,  driven  hither  and  thither  by 
conflicting  claims,  came  at  length  to  a  decision.  Ad 
dressing  the  secretary,  he  said :  l l  Call  my  name. ' '  The 
secretary  called  "Mr.  Morrill/'  and  Mr.  Morrill  voted 
nay.  There  was  a  tie,  and  the  resolution  was,  at  least, 
not  carried.  But  Stockton  is  upon  his  feet.  He 
tells  of  the  pair  with  his  colleague,  of  the  telegram  of 
the  day  before,  of  the  telegram  of  that  day,  and  states 
that  his  colleague  still  holds  the  senator  from  Maine 
to  his  agreement  without  which  he  would  not  have 
gone  home  at  all.  He  then  directs  the  secretary  to 
call  his  own  name  and  votes  in  the  affirmative.  The 
result  is  announced,  Yeas  22,  Nays  21.  The  New 
Jersey  senator  is  safe.  With  blank  faces  and  in 
ominous  silence  the  contrivers  of  the  scheme  look  on 
while  the  Senate  adjourns  over  Sunday. 

But  the  struggle  was  not  yet  abandoned.  The  more 
thorough-going  partisans  of  the  House  joined  those  of 
the  Senate  in  holding  conclaves  during  Saturday  and 
Sunday,  so  that  by  Monday  a  programme  had  been 
mapped  out  by  which  it  was  hoped  to  retrieve  the 
situation.  To  Charles  Sumner  was  confided  the  task 
of  redeeming  what  with  unconscious  irony  he  called 
"The  Honor  of  the  American  Senate."  At  the  open 
ing  of  Monday's  session,  he  moved  to  strike  out  Stock- 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  TWO-THIRDS  75 

ton's  vote  as  "null  and  void,"  first,  because  "accord 
ing  to  the  principles  of  natural  law,  or  in  other  words, 
the  principles  of  universal  law,"  "no  man  can  be  a 
judge  in  his  own  case"  and,  second,  because  "according 
to  the  principles  of  parliamentary  law"  (embodied  in 
a  rule  in  the  House  but  not  in  the  Senate)  "no  mem 
ber  shall  vote  on  anything  in  the  event  of  which  he  is 
immediately  interested."  The  right  of  a  senator  to 
vote  in  defence  of  his  own  seat  was  ably  expounded 
by  the  minority.  Stockton  detailed  the  circumstances 
connected  with  the  broken  pair,  reading  a  letter  from 
a  son  of  his  sick  colleague  in  which  it  was  stated  that, 
"not  a  single  word"  had  the  senator  from  Maine 
communicated  to  the  writer's  father  of  his  intention 
to  disregard  his  pledge.  Fessenden  and  Sumner  both 
admitted  that  they  had  urged  the  paired  senator  to 
vote,  justifying  their  action  by  the  twofold  plea  (1) 
' '  that  a  pair  for  so  long  a  period  was  not  originally  con 
templated  by  the  parties,"  and  (2)  that  a  man  even  so 
ill  as  Wright  had  ample  time  to  arrive  between  the 
receipt  of  Thursday's  telegram  and  Friday's  vote.  On 
this  delicate  and  rather  unpleasant  subject,  it  will 
suffice  to  quote  Hendricks'  answer  on  the  first  point, 
which  seems  conclusive— the  second  needing  no  answer. 

''There  is  force  in  that  suggestion  where  there  is  a  gen 
eral  pair.  If  I  pair  with  the  Senator  from  Maine  upon 
questions  of  a  class,  for  instance  upon  all  questions  in  rela 
tion  to  the  rebel  States,  ...  of  course  if  I  remain  absent 
for  a  protracted  time,  he  has  the  right  to  terminate  the 
pair.  .  .  . 


76     IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

"But  if  I  pair  with  him  in  regard  to  any  particular 
question,  what  difference  does  it  make  to  him  whether  the 
vote  upon  that  question  is  taken  to-morrow  or  a  month 
hence  ?  If  the  seat  of  his  colleague  is  to  be  contested  and  I 
am  to  be  a'bsent,  .  .  .  and  he  and  I  agree  to  pair  off,  not 
generally  upon  a  class  of  subjects,  but  upon  that  particular 
question,  how  is  it  of  interest  to  him  whether  that  particular 
vote  comes  up  to-morrow  or  next  month?" 

It  being  ascertained,  however,  that  Trumbull  and  his 
Bepublican  colleagues  on  the  judiciary  committee 
were  a  unit  against  his  right  to  vote,  Stockton,  in 
deference  to  the  opinion  of  these  friends  of  his  title, 
expressed  his  willingness  to  withdraw  his  vote ;  and  in 
consequence  of  this  offer,  the  Senate  reconsidered  the 
resolution  carried  on  Friday,  and,  on  Simmer's  motion, 
declared  that  on  the  pending  question  Stockton's  vote 
should  not  be  received.  An  effort  made  by  the  minority 
to  postpone  the  matter  until  Thursday  was  vehemently 
opposed  by  Sumner,  Clark  and  Nye.  Because  Friday's 
vote  was  presumed  to  have  settled  the  question, 
Wright's  coming  had  been  thought  unnecessary;  and, 
since  Friday,  Morgan  by  an  extraordinary  fatality  had 
been  added  to  the  sick  list.  The  managers  of  the  plot, 
therefore,  had  good  reasons  to  object  to  any  delay. 
They  meant  to  make  the  most  of  the  time  before  the 
recovery  of  Morgan  and  the  possible  arrival  of  Wright. 
And  this  motive  was  blurted  out  by  Nye : 

"We  have  reached  a  point  in  the  consideration  of  this 
case  where  the  Senate  should  act  promptly  upon  it.  It 
is  due  to  the  State  of  New  Jersey.  It  is  a  thing  perfectly 
well  known  that  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of  New  Jersey 


STRUGGLE   FOR  THE   TWO-THIRDS  77 

are  holding  on  now  for  no  other  purpose  than,  if  the  vote 
in  this  body  is  such  as  to  relieve  Mr.  Stockton  from  further 
duty  here,  that  they  may  elect  a  man  in  his  place.  .  .  . 
They  are  now  adjourning  from  day  to  day  for  no  other 
purpose. ' ' 

The  Senate  adjourned  until  the  morrow  with  the 
understanding  that  the  subject  should  come  up  im 
mediately  in  the  morning.  The  next  day— Tuesday, 
March  27th— the  Senate  Chamber  was  crowded.  It 
was  whispered  that  a  veto  of  the  Civil  Rights  bill  was 
on  the  way.  Every  senator  was  at  his  post  except 
Dixon,  Foot  and  Wright,  Morgan  having  convalesced. 
A  telegram  was  read  from  Wright  begging  the  Senate, 
if  it  had  not  already  done  so,  to  defer  the  case  until 
Thursday,  when  he  either  would  be  present  or  ask  no 
further  delay.  In  answer  to  Clark's  objection  that 
there  was  not  a  shadow  of  reason  why  the  absent 
senator,  if  able  to  be  there  on  Thursday,  could  not 
have  been  there  to-day,  another  telegram  was  read 
stating  that  his  physician  had  warned  him  not  to  start 
last  night  or  this  morning,  nor  before  to-morrow,  when 
the  journey  might  be  risked.  But  the  radicals  were 
inexorable.  The  reception  of  the  veto  at  this  moment  * 
made  them  doubly  so;  they  would  not  grant  even  a 
day 's  delay.  Sumner  solemnly  reminded  his  associates : 
' i  There  is  a  Reaper  whose  name  is  Death ;  he,  too,  may 
come  among  us.  Disease  has  made  a  pair  between  the 
absent  Senator  from  New  Jersey  and  the  absent  Senator 
from  Vermont.  Let  that  pair  continue  "  —losing  sight 
of  the  absent  senator  from  Connecticut.  He  and  his 
followers  sneered  at  the  possibility  of  Wright's  coming 


78     IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

—the  man  was  sick  unto  death  and  would  never  come, 
and  they  scouted  the  suggestion  that  this  grave  question 
should  be  put  off  for  a  single  day  on  such  a  chance. 
On  the  heels  of  this  cruel  decision,  Clark  moved  to 
amend  the  pending  resolution  affirming  Stockton's 
title  by  inserting  the  word  l '  not ' ' ;  and  in  this  form  the 
test  vote  was  taken.  Stockton,  knowing  he  was  about 
to  be  sacrificed,  made  a  last  speech,  recounting  the 
whole  history  of  his  election,  reading  the  journal  of 
"the  Joint-meeting  of  the  Legislature"  of  his  state, 
so  as  to  preserve  for  the  eyes  of  an  impartial  posterity 
the  full  extent  of  the  approaching  iniquity.  Then, 
after  further  ineffectual  efforts  to  amend  and  to  post 
pone  until  the  next  day,  the  roll-call  began. 

nThe  veto  of  the  Civil  Eights  bill  lay  on  the  secre- 
ary's  desk  as  he  rose  to  call.  Morrill,  as  if  he  found 
it  unendurable  to  face  dishonour  a  second  time,  had 
arranged  another  pair  with  Foster  and  fled  the  chamber. 
Stewart,  present  in  the  morning,  had  suddenly  dis 
appeared.  Every  other  senator  was  present  except 
the  three  disabled  by  illness  (Dixon,  Foot  and  Wright). 
Every  senator  voting  voted  the  same  way  as  on  Friday, 
and  every  senator  present  voted,  but  two— Stockton, 
denied  the  right  to  vote,  and  Foster  paired  with  Morrill. 
The  yeas  were  22,  the  nays  21.  The  resolution  as 
amended  was  immediately  adopted  by  the  same  vote, 
except  that  senator  Kiddle  went  with  the  majority  so 
as  to  move  a  reconsideration  and  thus  keep  the  matter 
alive  until  Wright  should  arrive.  This  last  effort 
was  defeated  by  Clark,  who,  forestalling  Riddle,  moved 
a  reconsideration  himself  and  called  upon  his  forces  to 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  TWO-THIRDS  79 

make  "the  trial  now."  At  this  critical  juncture,  a 
messenger  arrived  from  Newark,  with  the  intelligence 
that  every  arrangement  was  made  to  convey  Wright 
to  Washington  in  time  to  vote  to-morrow.  But  the 
plot  was  too  near  accomplishment  to  run  any  risk  of 
failure  now.  The  day's  delay  was  denied  without 
compunction,  and  Clark's  motion  to  reconsider  lost 
by  the  same  vote  as  before— Stewart  still  in  hiding. 
The  struggle  was  at  an  end.  The  senator  from  New 
Jersey  was  ejected  by  a  majority  of  one.  Without 
Merrill's  broken  pair  the  outrage  could  not  have  been 
consummated;  and  Merrill's  broken  pair  would  not 
have  sufficed  had  it  not  been  for  Stewart 's  defection. 

It  must  not  escape  notice,  however,  that  by  a  most 
humorous  twist  of  Fortune's  finger  this  hard- won  but 
shameful  victory  was  rendered  half -barren  for  the 
moment.  Stockton  had  gone,  but  his  successor  did  not 
come.  The  legislature  of  New  Jersey,  holding  on  from 
day  to  day,  patiently  awaiting  the  triumph  of  what  was 
called  "loyalty"  in  the  United  States  Senate,  was  not 
permitted  to  complete  the  great  work  after  all.  One 
James  M.  Scovel  chanced  this  year  to  hold  the  casting- 
vote  in  the  upper  House  over  which  he  presided,  and 
having  been  won  over  by  the  Johnsonites  with  the  bait 
of  the  federal  patronage  of  the  state,  he  stubbornly  re 
fused  to  allow  the  senate  to  go  into  joint-meeting.  In 
vain  did  "Old  Thad"  belabour  him  from  Washington 
with  telegram  after  telegram.  He  would  not  budge. 
And,  so,  after  many  days  of  arrested  mobility,  the  two 
houses  were  at  last  forced  to  adjourn,  leaving  Stock 
ton's  chair  still  standing  vacant,  a  silent  reminder  of 


80     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

what    Charles    Simmer    called,    "The    Honor    of    the 
American  Senate." 

Immediately  after  the  ejection  of  Stockton,  came  the 
reading  of  the  veto  of  the  Civil  Rights  bill.  Brief, 
calm,  courteous  and  dignified  in  its  tone,  cogent  in  its 
logic  and  invulnerable  in  the  points  it  made — in  these 
particulars  the  message  furnished  a  refreshing  contrast 
to  the  unseemly  struggle  which  had  just  ended  in  the 
Senate,  as  well  as  to  the  indecorous  exhibition  in  the 
House  seventeen  days  before.  The  unconstitutionality 
of  the  main  provision— so  plain  that  even  the  strictest 
radicals  could  not  blind  themselves  to  it— was  ex 
pounded  with  a  master's  stroke.  The  death  of  the 
venerable  and  much-loved  senator  from  Vermont,  oc 
curring  the  next  day,  prevented  consideration  of  the 
veto  until  April  the  fourth.  Just  before  the  debate 
opened  Stewart  made  an  attempt  to  smooth  over  his 
defection  by  airing  his  own  particular  project  of  recon 
struction.  But  this  was  his  last  effort  to  retrieve  his 
independence,  and  he  soon  sank  into  the  ranks  of  those 
steady  supporters  of  party  measures  upon  whom  the 
leaders  count  as  a  matter  of  course.  The  second  day 
of  the  debate  was  signalized  by  the  appearance  of 
George  F.  Edmunds,  appointed  to  the  vacancy  occas 
ioned  by  the  death  of  Foot ;  the  celerity  of  the  governor 
of  Vermont  giving  poignant  emphasis  to  the  paralyzed 
condition  of  the  legislature  of  New  Jersey.  The 
presence  of  the  new  recruit  sharpened  the  impatience 
of  the  majority  to  dispose  of  the  veto.  In  the  evening 
the  minority  proposed  that  a  time  should  be  fixed  for 

*  Scovel's  testimony,  Imp.  Inv.,  p.  010  ct  seq. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE  TWO-THIRDS  81 

taking  the  vote  on  the  morrow  so  that  the  two  senators 
who  were  ill  in  the  capital  might  attend.  It  was  known 
that  Dixon  had  suffered  a  relapse,  and,  if  brought  to 
the  Senate  at  all,  could  remain  but  a  short  time,  and 
that  Wright  had  arrived  in  the  care  of  his  son,  but  in 
a  like  feeble  condition.  At  this  moment  the  suspense 
was  so  heavy  that  business  was  interrupted— senators 
gathering  in  buzzing  groups  or  moving  to  and  fro  with 
hurried  mien.  The  value  of  the  ill-gotten  gain  of  the 
struggle  for  the  two-thirds  was  about  to  be  tested,  and 
the  uncertainty  was  too  great  for  comfort.  The  acces 
sion  of  Edmunds  was  a  cheering  stroke  of  good  fortune. 
But  the  unexpected  return  of  Wright,  the  probable 
presence  of  Dixon,  the  doubtful  attitude  of  Willey  and 
Morgan,  once  again,  put  the  result  in  jeopardy.  Wade 
sprang  to  his  feet  and  burst  forth  into  a  thundering 
protest  against  any  further  delay : 

' '  I  will  not  yield  to  these  appeals  to  comity  on  a  question 
like  this;  but  I  will  tell  the  President  and  everybody  else, 
that  if  God  Almighty  has  stricken'  one  member  so  that  he 
cannot  be  here  to  uphold  the  dictation  of  a  despot,  I  thank 
Him  for  His  interposition  and  I  will  take  advantage  of  it 
if  lean." 

Nothing  but  the  prospect  of  an  all-night's  session 
forced  the  majority  to  consent  to  an  adjournment. 

The  next  day  (April  6)  at  the  opening  hour,  every 
chair  was  filled  but  two.  Dixon  was  kept  away  by  the 
rain  which  was  falling,  but  it  was  whispered  that  should 
his  presence  at  any  moment  become  necessary  he  would 
be  carried  into  the  chamber.  Stockton's  chair  stood 
conspicuous  by  its  emptiness;  but,  like  the  stool  of  the 
6 


82     IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

murdered  Banquo,  Wright's  was  "full."  When,  near 
the  close  of  the  day,  the  debate  had  run  itself  out  and 
the  question  was  about  to  be  put,  the  excitement  of  the 
critical  moments  of  the  Stockton  episode  was  renewed 
in  an  intensified  form.  Failure  to  override  the  veto 
meant  nothing  less  than  progressive  disintegration 
ending  in  final  defeat  of  the  party,  or  submission  to 
Andrew  Johnson.  Tremendous  must  have  been  the 
pressure  brought  to  bear  on  Morgan  whose  fidelity  to 
'Seward  had  hitherto  held  him  to  the  President's  side. 
As  the  names  of  the  senators  were  called  in  alphabetical 
order,  the  first  change  noticed  was  the  prompt  response 
of  the  recruit  from  Vermont.  When  the  name  of 
Morgan  was  pronounced  there  was  a  painful  pause  for 
a  moment;  but  when  his  yea  was  heard,  the  galleries 
broke  loose  in  an  uproar  and  the  leaders  on  the  floor 
heaved  a  great  sigh  of  relief.  There  was  a  last  moment 
of  suspense  when  Willey's  name  was  reached,  but  his 
separation  from  his  colleague  who  had  just  voted  nay 
settled  the  question  beyond  a  peradventure.  The  death- 
stricken  senator  from  New  Jersey  was  the  last  but  one 
to  vote.  He  could  not  save  the  veto  as  he  might  have 
done  had  he  been  permitted  to  save  his  colleague.  What 
compunctious  visitings  troubled  the  radicals  as  they 
gazed  at  his  pale  face  and  reclining  form,  it  were  idle 
to  conjecture.  But  his  presence  served  to  bring  to 
shame  the  prophecies  that  death  would  not  let  him 
come,  which,  in  excuse  for  their  refusal  of  even  a  day's 
delay,  they  had  so  heartlessly  thrown  about  the  Senate. 
The  yeas  were  thirty-three,  the  nays  fifteen,  absent  one 
(Dixon).  Two-thirds  having  voted  in  the  affirmative, 


STRUGGLE   FOR  THE   TWO-THIRDS  83 

the  bill  was  passed,  the  objections  of  the  President  to 
the  contrary  notwithstanding/ 

It  was  a  cardinal  triumph— but  missing  defeat  only 
by  a  hair.  The  majority  could  not  have  spared  a  single 
vote.  Had  either  Morgan  or  Willey  or  even  Stewart 
stood  firm,  Dixon  lay  ready  to  be  carried  into  the 
chamber  and  the  veto  would  have  been  sustained. 
Moreover,  close  as  it  was,  the  victory  was  soiled  by  a 
breach  of  plighted  faith.  Had  not  Stockton  been 
turned  out,  the  defection  of  Stewart  and  Willey  and 
Morgan  would  not  have  averted  defeat,  and  Stockton 
could  not  have  been  turned  out  had  not  Morrill  broken 
his  word.  On  the  following  Monday,  the  House  of 
Representatives,  which  during  the  ordeal  in  the  Senate 
had  been  attending  strictly  to  non-political  legislation, 
took  up  the  Civil  Rights  bill,  and  choking  off  all 
debate,  passed  it  over  the  veto  with  a  rush.  At  the  con 
clusion  of  the  roll-call,  the  speaker,  although  the  result 
could  be  in  no  way  affected  by  his  vote,  ostentatiously 
directed  the  clerk  to  call  his  name  and  responded  in 
the  affirmative  with  great  gusto  and  to  the  delight  of 
the  majority.  His  exultant  declaration,  made,  as  he 
said,  by  authority  vested  in  him  by  the  Constitution, 
that  the  bill  "has  become  a  law, "  was  hailed  with  shouts 
and  with  clapping  of  hands  and  stamping  of  feet,  both 
on  the  floor  and  in  the  galleries ;  the  scene  of  disorder, 
which  no  attempt  was  made  to  check,  continuing  for 
several  minutes. f 

*  C! lobe,  id.,  1809. 
f  /(/.,  1861. 


84     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

VThe  Congressional  majority  might  well  rejoice;  for 
.  this  was  the  pivotal  point  of  the  contest.  The  failure 
to  override  the  veto  of  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  bill 
showed  that  the  President  still  held  the  initiative.  The 
passage  of  the  Civil  Rights  bill  over  the  veto  showed 
that  the  scale  had  shifted,  and  the  initiative  was  now 
in  the  hands  of  the  Congress.  Viewed  from  another 
and  higher  standpoint,  the  enactment  of  the  Civil 
Eights  law  marks  an  epoch  in  our  constitutional  history. 
Since  the  foundation  of  the  federal  government,  the 
veto  power  had  been  exercised  with  relative  frequency,, 
and,  up  to  the  present  time,  its  exercise  had  been 
effectual,  except  in  two  minor  instances  which  serve 
only  to  emphasize  the  rule.  From  the  inauguration  of 
Washington,  for  fifty-six  years  every  bill  vetoed  by  a 
President  failed  to  become  a  law.  In  the  last  days  of 
the  administration  of  Tyler  a  bill  was  passed  over  the 
veto  of  the  President  for  the  first  time  in  our  history; 
but  it  was  a  bill  simply  forbidding  payment  for  certain 
vessels  the  President  had  ordered  built,  and  was 
of  no  national  significance  whatever.  Beside  this 
single  instance,  during  the  first  session  of  the  thirty- 
fourth  Congress  a  series  of  special  bills  was  passed 
over  the  vetoes  of  President  Pierce;  but  they  were 
ordinary  appropriations  for  river  and  harbor  improve 
ments,  involved  no  important  principle,  and  provoked 
but  little  comment.  Never  until  now  had  a  public 
measure  of  importance  been  made  a  law  in  defiance 
of  the  objections  of  the  President.*  Furthermore, 

*  Schouler's  Hist,  of  U.  S.,  Vol.  IV,  p.  491;  Vol.  V,  p.  364. 


STRUGGLE  FOR  THE   TWO-THIRDS  85 

every  previous  exercise  of  the  veto  power  on  measures 
of  importance  had  been  grounded  on  the  objection, 
sometimes  accompanied  by  others,  that  the  measure  was 
unconstitutional.  And  every  one  of  these  vetoes  had 
stopped  the  passage  of  the  proposed  enactment  and  so 
far  preserved  the  Constitution  from  what  in  the  judg 
ment  of  the  executive  was  a  violation  of  its  provisions. 
x  But,  in  the  present  instance,  for  the  first  time  in  the 
history  of  the  country,  a  measure  of  wide-reaching 
scope  and  primary  significance  had  been  made  into  a 
law  notwithstanding  the  disapproval  of  the  executive 
not  only,  but  also  in  the  face  of  the  protest  of  the  Presi 
dent  that  the  Constitution  contained  no  grant  of  power 
to  pass  it  and  that  many  of  its  provisions  violated  the 
constitutional  rights  of  the  states  and  the  people.  Such 
an  exigency  being  without  precedent  gave  birth  to 
startling  questions.  What  would  the  executive  do 
with  an  act  which  in  his  judgment  contravened  the 
Constitution  and  was,  therefore,  void?  Jackson  laid 
down  the  rule  that  the  interpretation  put  upon  the  Con 
stitution  by  one  department  was  not  binding  on  any 
other,  that  every  department  of  the  government  had 
the  right  to  construe  the  Constitution  for  itself;  and, 
to  this  doctrine,  since  the  I) red  Scott  decision,  the 
Republican  party,  in  practice  if  not  in  theory,  had 
subscribed.  An  act  of  Congress  in  accordance  with 
that  decision,  passed  over  a  veto,  would  have  had  scant 
respect  from  that  party,  and  a  refusal  by  the  President 
to  execute  such  a  law  would  have  been  hailed  with  accla 
mation  by  its  leaders.  And  these  leaders  appear  now 
to  have  anticipated,  and  perhaps  hoped,  that  President 


86     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Johnson  would  refuse,  or  at  least  neglect,  to  enforce  a 
measure  he  had  denounced  as  unconstitutional,  though 
passed  over  his  objections.  So  that  the  question  had 
arisen:  What  was  to  be  done  in  case  their  carefully 
contrived  legislation  should  become  a  dead  letter  in  the 
hostile  hand  that  penned  the  veto !  When  the  country 
came  to  comprehend  the  drift  of  such  considerations 
as  these,  suspicion  began  to  filter  into  the  minds  of  the 
masses  that  the  struggle  for  the  two-thirds  carried  a 
deeper  significance  than  the  taking  off  a  senator  or  two 
so  as  to  pass  a  law.  All  at  once  it  was  recalled  that, 
though  a  majority  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
might  impeach  the  President,  the  Constitution  required 
two-thirds  of  the  Senate  to  effect  his  conviction  and 
removal  from  office.  This  popular  suspicion,  there 
can  be  no  doubt,  embodied  an  element  of  truth.  The 
impeachment  and  removal  from  office  of  their  indom 
itable  adversary  already  hovered  in  the  minds  of  the 
most  active  and  zealous  among  the  leaders  of  the  party. 
For  so  revolutionary  a  movement,  however,  the  margin 
they  had  won  in  the  Senate  was  too  narrow  and  un 
stable.  Something  further  remained  to  be  done. 


SECTION   V 

COLORADO,   FOURTEENTH   AMENDMENT   AND   TENNESSEE 

IT  is  not  likely  that  the  victors  in  the  recent  engage 
ment  indulged  in  any  expectation  that  the  menace  of 
impeachment  and  of  packing  the  court  to  pass  judg 
ment  would  cow  Andrew  Johnson.  In  1861,  when  he 
was  made  the  target  of  all  sorts  of  threats  on  account 
of  his  solitary  stand  against  secession  in  the  Senate, 
he  quietly  let  fall  this  characteristic  utterance:  "I 
want  to  say,  not  boastingly,  with  no  anger  in  my 
bosom,  that  these  two  eyes  of  mine  never  looked  upon 
anything  in  the  shape  of  mortal  man  that  this  heart 
feared."  His  one  idea  of  a  fight  was  to  return  with 
arithmetical  precision  blow  for  blow.  On  the  Monday 
succeeding  the  turning  out  of  Stockton  (April  2),  he 
issued  a  proclamation  of  peace  throughout  all  the  late 
insurgent  states,  except  Texas,  formally  withdrawing 
the  proclamations  of  war  of  his  predecessor  and  de 
claring  the  restoration  of  civil  rights  and  the  cessation 
of  martial  law.f  On  the  eighteenth  of  the  same  month, 
to  a  delegation  of  soldiers  and  sailors  he  announced  his 
unalterable  determination  "to  stick  to  his  position,"  and 
against  his  traducers  he  blew  a  blast  of  defiance: 
"Men  who,  when  he  was  battling  in  the  Senate  and  in 
his  own  State  for  the  Union,  were  lolling  in  ease  and 

*  dole,  2d  Sess.  36th  Cong.,  p.  1350. 
t  McPh.    Recon.,  p.  15. 

87 


88     IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

comfort";  he  heeded  them  not.  "The  whole  pack, 
Tray,  Blanche  and  Sweetheart,  little  dogs  and  all 
coming  along  snapping  at  my  heels."  And  he  did 
not  stop  with  proclamations  and  speeches.  He  began 
to  act  on  the  offensive,  to  make  reprisals.  A  harvest 
of  spoils  such  as  the  politicians  of  the  Jackson  epoch 
never  dreamed  of  was  being  reaped  by  the  dominant 
party  and  constituted  one  of  the  chief  elements  of  its 
strength.  The  dispensation  of  a  multitude  of  offices 
had  come  to  be,  through  immemorial  custom,  almost 
exclusively  an  executive  function.  This  function,  it 
now  appeared,  Johnson  meant  to  exercise  with  the 
purpose  of  rewarding  the  supporters  of  his  policy, 
whether  Republicans  or  Democrats,  and  thus  to  build 
up  a  party  of  his  own ;  or,  failing  that,  to  reinvigorate 
the  party  of  his  youth  and  earlier  manhood.  This 
was  the  one  course  of  conduct  which  even  the  apologists 
of  the  President  still  left  among  the  Republican  leaders, 
such  as  John  Sherman,  declared  they  could  not  for 
give.  Difference  of  opinion  on  such  capital  questions 
of  state  as  negro  suffrage,  rebel  disfranchisement,  re 
construction,  they  could  tolerate  for  the  time  being. 
But  the  offices  were  consecrated  to  the  party.  Any 
interference  with  their  enjoyment  by  "loyal"  party 
men,  especially  in  the  interest  of  an  unholy  alliance 
with  the  Northern  Democrats,  would  be  looked  upon 
as  treachery  so  perfidious  as  to  banish  any  lingering 
scruples  over  the  character  of  the  means  by  which  it 
might  be  forestalled. 

Upon  no  prominent  politician  could  this  threatening 
aspect  of  affairs  have  had  a  more  powerful  influence 


COLORADO  89 

than  upon  Henry  Wilson,  who,  at  the  time  of  the  defeat 
of  the  bill  for  the  admission  of  Colorado,  had  entered 
a  motion  to  reconsider.*  At  that  date,  the  admission 
of  a  territory,  the  population  of  which  did  not  equal  one- 
fourth  of  the  numher  required  by  law  for  one  repre 
sentative  in  Congress,  the  voters  of  which  had  rejected 
the  constitution  submitted  to  them  at  the  only  election 
held  under  the  enabling  act  and,  according  to  the  best 
attainable  evidence,  were  averse  to  state-hood;  for  no 
other  purpose  than  to  increase  the  majority  on  the  floor 
of  the  Senate,  was  an  enormity  too  scandalous  for  even 
the  men  who  turned  out  Stockton  to  perpetrate.  The 
bill  got  but  fourteen  votes,  Wilson  himself  voting 
against  it.  But,  in  view  of  the  increasing  aggressive 
ness  of  the  President,  the  project  grew  more  and  more 
tempting,  and,  on  the  seventeenth  of  April,  Wilson 
revived  his  motion.  In  the  present  emergency,  he  said 
in  effect,  he  would  waive  his  hostility  to  the  word 
" white"  in  the  constitution  of  the  proposed  state;  we 
need  her  two  votes  in  the  Senate.  But  he  counted 
without  his  colleague  who  would  abate  no  jot  of  his 
former  opposition.  On  the  contrary,  Sumner,  in  addi 
tion  to  his  former  arguments,  now  showed  that  the 
population,  being  a  mining  population,  was  diminishing 
instead  of  increasing,  impugned  the  credibility  of  one 
of  the  senators-elect,  and  denounced  the  second  election 
as  illegal,  fraudulent  and  marked  with  violence  against 
the  negro.  In  short,  he  stripped  the  measure  of  every 
semblance  of  merit.  At  the  close  of  his  remarks,  he 
startled  the  Senate  from  its  propriety  by  exclaiming: 

*  Globe,  1st  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  1386.      See  Section  IV,  supra,  p.  Go. 


90     IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

"It  is  whispered  that  we  need  two  more  votes  on  this 
floor.  Sir,  there  is  something  that  you  need  more 
than  two  votes. ' '  Again :  ' '  Tell  me  not  it  is  expedient 
to  create  two  more  votes  in  this  Chamber. ' '  This  time, 
however,  his  opposition  was  unsuccessful.  The  bill 
passed  the  Senate  by  the  vote  of  19  yeas  and  13  nays ; 
not  voting  17,  all  but  five  of  whom  were  paired.  Nine 
Republican  senators,  who  either  voted  against  the  bill 
before  or  were  absent  or  did  not  vote  at  all,  now  voted 
for  it,  and  one  was  paired  in  its  favor.  Of  the  Repub 
licans  who  opposed  the  measure  before,  Foster,  Fes- 
senden,  Grimes,  Harris,  Morgan,  Poland  and  Sumner 
stood  firm.  Edmunds  voted  nay  from  antipathy  to 
the  word  "white."  The  real  division  of  the  Senate 
was  25  yeas  and  19  nays.* 

The  bill  did  not  pass  the  House  without  a  struggle 
over  the  obnoxious  word,  and,  then  (May  3d),  by  a 
vote  of  but  81  yeas  to  57  nays.  An  atmosphere  of  dis 
trust  hung  around  the  senators-elect.  Both  sides 
seemed  to  count  upon  their  support.  The  suspicions 
concerning  their  attitude,  entertained  by  certain  radical 
senators,  which  there  is  reason  to  believe  seriously  con 
tributed  to  the  first  defeat  of  the  bill,  must  by  some 
means  have  been  allayed;  yet  their  unconditional  com 
mittal  against  the  President's  policy  could  not  have 
been  publicly  known,  for  close  friends  of  Johnson  con 
tinued  to  favor  the  admission  of  the  state:— among 
them  Edward  Cooper,  one  of  the  representatives-in- 
Congress-elect  from  Tennessee,  who,  in  the  interval  he 
was  denied  his  seat,  acted  as  the  private  secretary  of 

*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  1982,  2135-44,  2180. 


COLORADO  91 

the  President.  To  him  in  that  capacity,  as  late  as 
Saturday,  the  twelfth  of  May,  the  Colorado  senators 
addressed  a  joint  letter  in  which  they  pronounced  the 
prevailing  rumor  that  "they  had  sold  out  to  the 
radicals"  "entirely  untrue,"  and  protested  that  they 
had  "pledged  themselves  to  support  no  man  or  meas 
ures.  ' '  On  the  evening  of  Monday,  the  tenth  day  after 
the  passage  of  the  bill,  they  had  an  interview  first  with 
Cooper  and  afterwards  with  the  President.  Cooper 
wanted  them  to  strengthen  his  own  arguments  with 
his  chief,  by  avowing  their  adherence  to  the  policy  of 
the  immediate  admission  of  all  the  unrepresented 
states  whose  members  could  take  the  test  oath;  and 
there  is  reason  to  believe  that  they  did  make  an  avowal 
of  this  kind,  more  or  less  unequivocal.  The  inter 
view  with  the  President  was  inconclusive,  except  that 
Johnson  let  his  visitors  know  that  he  did  not  think  it 
in  consonance  with  the  future  welfare  of  the  Union  to 
admit  two  more  men  into  the  Senate  to  carry  out  the 
schemes  of  the  radicals.*  The  veto  message  must  have 
been  written  at  this  very  moment,  as  it  was  sent  in 
that  evening.  The  message  was  laid  upon  the  table  as 
in  view  of  the  vote  on  the  passage  of  the  bill  there  was 
no  hope  of  overcoming  the  veto.  The  second  trial  of 
this  indefensible  scheme,  like  the  first,  had  ended  in 
failure.  A  third  was  still  to  come. 

But  all  other  subjects  of  legislation  were  swept  aside 
by  the  plan  of  reconstruction  reported  by  the  joint-com 
mittee  on /the  thirtieth  day  of  April  and  taken  up  by  the 
House  ^n  the  eighth  of  May.  The  plan  was  in  two 

Testimony  of  Cooper,  "  Impeachment  Investigation,"  pp.  23-7. 


92     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

parts:  (I.)  A  proposed  amendment  to  the  Constitution. 
(II.)  Two  bills  supplementary  to  the  amendment.  The 
amendment,  unlike  the  one  first  reported  and  killed 
in  the  Senate,  contained  five  sections  instead  of  one. 
The  first  section  was  a  repetition  of  the  main  provision 
of  the  civil  rights  law.  The  $ecpnd  was  the  single  sec 
tion  of  the  amendment  first  reported  (modified  as  to 
its  phraseology  to  suit  Sumner's  fastidious  philan 
thropy)  basing  representation  on  population  and  pro 
viding  proportionate  reduction  on  account  of  the  denial 
(or  abridgment)  of  the  elective  franchise  to  male  adult 
citizens  for  any  cause  except  for  participation  in  re 
bellion  or  other  crime.  The  third^section  excluded 
from  the  right  to  vote  for  representatives  in  Congress 
and  presidential  electors  until  the  4th  day  of  July, 
1870,  all  persons  who  had  voluntarily  adhered  to  the 
late  insurrection.  The  fourth  inhibited  the  payment 
of  the  rebel  debt  and  the  fifth  simply  gave  Congress 
the  power  to  enforce  the  foregoing  four.  Of  the  ac 
companying  bills,  the  first  provided  that  when  the 
proposed  amendment  shall  have  become  part  of  the 
Constitution,  and  any  state  lately  in  insurrection  shall 
have  ratified  the  same,  the  senators  and  representatives 
from  such  state,  if  found  duly  elected  and  qualified, 
may,  after  having  taken  the  "iron-clad"  oath,  be  ad 
mitted  to  Congress;  the  second  rendered  ineligible  to 
office  under  the  United  States  five  classes  of  the  late 
Confederates.* 

The  plan  bore  evidence  on  its  face  that  it  was  a  com 
promise  of  conflicting  views  among  the  members  of  the 

*McPh.    Recon.,  pp.  103-4. 


i  ^T 
*C 


FOURTEENTH   AMENDMENT  93 

committee.  Radicals  of  the  Stevens  type  were  dissat 
isfied  because  the  state  governments  organized  under 
the  President's  plan  were  recognized.  Radicals  of  the 
Sumner  type  were  dissatisfied  because  negro  suffrage 
was  not  made  a  condition  precedent  to  admission.  But 
radicals  of  all  types,  for  the  most  part,  dissembled 
their  dissatisfaction  because  they  perceived  that,  by 
incorporating  into  the  proposed  amendment  a  section 
disfranchising  the  leaders  of  the  late  Confederacy  and 
then  exacting  the  ratification  of  the  amendment  as  a 
whole,  the  plan  was  rendered  impracticable;  and  they 
had  but  to  bide  their  time.  As  senator  Dixon  pointed 
out,  the  project,  instead  of  being  "a  practical  scheme  for 
hastening  the  reestablishment  of  all  the  states  in  their 
full  constitutional  relations,"  will  inevitably  postpone 
this  desired  end.  "It  is  hardly  worth  while  to  discuss 
the  merits  of  measures  which  to  be  valid  must  be  ac 
cepted  by  communities  sure  to  reject  them."* 
I  The  country  had  not  long  to  wait  to  learn  the  atti- 
tucfe  of  the  Executive  Department  towards  this  counter- 
plan  of  the  Congress.  The  day  after  its  submission 
there  was  a  meeting  of  the  Cabinet,  and  an  apparently 
authoritative  statement  of  the  opinion  of  the  President 
and  his  confidential  advisers  came  out  in  the  press. 
As  might  have  been  anticipated,  the  President  was 
"against  all  conditions  precedent  to  the  admission  of 
loyal  representatives  from  the  Southern  states,  in  the 
shape  of  amendments  to  the  Constitution  or  the  pas 
sage  of  laws";  and,  according  to  the  report,  in  this 
position  he  was  sustained  by  secretaries  Seward,  Mc- 

*  Globe,  1st  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  2332. 


94     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Culloch,  Stanton  and  Welles;  Dennison,  the  Postmaster- 
General,  expressing  some  doubts  as  to  the  precise  time 
representatives  should  be  admitted,  Harlan  being  re 
ticent,  and  Speed,  the  Attorney-General,  absent.*  The 
administration  presented  the  same  external  appearance 
of  harmony  as  did  the  joint  committee;  but  it  was 
known  that  internal  dissensions  were  beginning  to  dis 
turb  the  peace  of  the  one,  as. they  had  all  along  dis 
turbed  the  peace  of  the  other. 

The  debate  continued  in  the  House  for  two  days,  the 
chief  contention  being  over  the  disfranchising  section 
which  was  allowed  to  remain  by  a  majority  of  but  five, 
and  then  the  amendment  was  passed  by  more  than  the 
necessary  two-thirds.  It  encountered  stormy  weather 
in  the  Senate.  The  debate  opened  on  the  twenty-third, 
when  the  third  section  was  virtually  thrown  overboard 
as  of  no  practical  benefit  and  another  suggested  similar 
to  the  one  finally  inserted.  After  another  day's  dis 
cussion,  there  was  an  interval  of  some  days  during 
which  a  caucus  was  held  and  a  series  of  modifications 
agreed  to,  so  that  when  the  subject  was  resumed  on  the 
twenty-ninth  there  was  but  little  difficulty  in  carving 
the  amendment  into  the  shape  it  now  bears  as  the 
Fourteenth  Amendment  of  the  Constitution.  Instead 
of  disfranchising  the  leaders  of  the  late  Confederacy 
until  July  4,  1870,  as  the  third  section  originally  pro 
vided,  the  substitute  inserted  by  the  Senate  provided 
for  the  ineligibility  to  office— state  as  well  as  federal— 
of  any  person  who,  having  held  any  office  requiring  the 

*  Quoted  from  National  Intelligencer  of  May  2,  18G6,  by  senator 
Grimes,  Glole,  id.,  p.  2333. 


FOURTEENTH   AMENDMENT  95 

taking  of  the  constitutional  oath  before  the  war,  should 
have  engaged  in  insurrection  or  rebellion  against  the 
United  States;  Congress  being  given  power  by  a  two- 
thirds  vote  to  remove  the  disability: — the  clause  em 
bracing,  as  Reverdy  Johnson  said,  "perhaps  nine- 
tenths  of  the  gentlemen  of  the  South."*  On  Monday, 
June  fourth,  the  discussion  was  resumed  and  lasted 
until  Friday  night,  when  the  whole  measure  having 
been  subjected  to  a  minute  revision  was  adopted  by 
the  necessary  two-thirds.  Before  the  vote  was  taken, 
a  proposition  was  made  by  the  minority  to  submit  to 
the  states  the  several  sections  as  so  many  separate 
articles,  any  one  or  more  of  which  might  be  ratified  or 
rejected;  an  expedient  adopted  by  the  first  Congress  in 
submitting  the  first  twelve  amendments,  only  ten  of 
which  were  ratified;  but,  although  several  Republicans 
during  the  course  of  the  debate  avowed  the  belief  that 
the  Southern  people  would  accept  the  penal  section  as 
well  as  the  rest,  the  proposition  found  no  favour.f 
{Indeed,  that  the  radicals  not  only  did  not  expect,  but, 
faTso,  did  not  desire,  the  South  to  ratify  this  amendment 
is  shown  by  the  fate  of  the  first  of  the  two  supple 
mentary  bills  reported  by  the  joint  committee.  The 
second  bill  was  rendered  useless  by  the  alteration 
which  the  third  section  of  the  amendment  underwent 
in  the  Senate.  But  the  first  was  a  constituent  part  of 
the  proposed  plan  of  reconstruction,  if  that  plan  was 
to  be  reconstructive  in  anything  more  than  a  contingent 
sense;  providing  as  it  did  for  the  restoration  of  the 

*  Globe,  id.,  p.  2808. 
t  Id.,  pp.  3040-2. 


96     IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Southern  states  on  the  ratification  of  the  amendment. 
That  Sumner  meant  that  this  bill  should  never  become  a 
law  is  shown  by  an  amendment  he  introduced  adding, 
as  a  further  condition  to  the  readmission  of  any  state, 
that  she  should  have  stripped  her  constitution  of  every 
trace  of  negro  disfranchisement.-*  But  the  bill  itself 
never  reappeared  in  the  Senate.  It  was  taken  up  and 
considered  in  a  desultory  manner  while  the  House  was 
waiting  for  the  close  of  the  long  debate  in  the  Senate 
on  the  amendment;  the  radicals  making  it  plain  that 
they  did  not  mean  to  admit  any  of  the  eleven  states 
without  the  establishment  of  "an  equal  and  just  sys 
tem  of  suffrage  for  all  male  citizens, ' '  and  the  conserva 
tives  giving  the  measure  but  a  lagging  and  grumbling 
support.  Debate  on  it  was  renewed  from  time  to  time 
but  no  serious  effort  was  made  to  bring  it  to  a  vote. 
The  passage  of  a  second  Freedmen's  Bureau  bill  pro 
longing  that  institution  two  years  furnishes  one  more 
piece  of  evidence  that  there  was  no  expectation  on  the 
part  of  the  majority  of  the  acceptance  by  the  South  of 
their  mutilated  plan.  One  section  of  this  last  bill  em 
bodying  the  provisions  of  the  Civil  Rights  act  gave  the 
President  in  his  veto  message  the  opportunity  to  set  at 
rest  all  apprehensions  of  a  refusal  to  enforce  a  measure 
that  he  had  condemned  as  unconstitutional  and  at  the 
same  time  to  blight  the  anticipations  of  the  advocates 
of  impeachment  in  this  direction:  "  'the  civil  rights 
bill,'  "  he  said,  "now  the  law  of  the  land,"  "will  be 
faithfully  executed  as  long  as  it  shall  remain  unrepealed 

*  Id.,  p.  2860. 


FOURTEENTH   AMENDMENT  07 

and  may  not  be  declared  unconstitutional  by  courts  of 
competent  jurisdiction." 

In  the  meantime  the  Fourteenth  Article  as  it  came 
from  the  Senate  having  been  concurred  in  by  the 
House  (June  13),  sped  on  its  way  north,  south,  east 
and  west.  Connecticut  ratified  on  the  twenty-ninth 
day  of  June,  New  Hampshire  followed  on  the  sixth 
of  July.  But  these  instances  had  little  significance. 
All  eyes  were  turned  on  Tennessee.  Her  remodeled 
government,  on  the  whole,  was  the  most  acceptable  to 
the  Republicans  of  the  Congress  of  all  those  of  the 
reconstructed  states.  The  franchise  was  not  as  yet 
granted  to  the  negroes  but  her  constitution  gave  the 
legislature  power  to  grant  it  at  any  time.  She  had 
disfranchised  every  white  man  in  the  state  who  had 
participated  to  any  extent  in  the  insurrection.  The 
election  of  Andrew  Johnson  Vice-President  had  given 
place  to  another  leader  of  the  whites  of  East  Tennessee 
who  now  ruled  the  state.  William  G.  Brownlow,  called 
the  "Fighting  Parson,"  prided  himself  on  having  been 
a  rival  of  Johnson's  in  the  affections  of  the  people. 
His  life  had  been  a  running  figlit  with  the  power  of 
slavery,  and  the  fiery  passions  butoiing  constantly  in 
his  heart  and  finding  voice  in  a  reckless  tongue  and  a 
still  more  reckless  and  remorseless  pen,  combined,  with 
untold  suffering  undergone  in  the  course  of  the  long 
combat,  to  fasten  upon  his  attenuated  frame  a  palsy 
which  shook  him  in  every  limb.  But  no  disease  how 
ever  terrible  could  shake  his  untamable  soul.  He  was 
elected  governor  on  the  same  day  that  Andrew  Johnson 

*McPh.    Recon.,  pp.  147-8. 

7 


98     IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

congratulated  the  Senate  upon  that  event  in  his  famous 
. speech  on  his  own  inauguration  as  Vice-President. 
From  the  moment  Johnson's  accession  to  the  presidency 
removed  him  from  the  field  of  state  politics,  the  Parson- 
Governor  let  loose  the  animosity  which  no  doubt  had 
long  been  slumbering  in  his  bosom  against  his  too  suc 
cessful  competitor.  The  breach  between  the  President 
and  the  Congress  gave  him  his  opportunity  and  he 
threw  himself  into  the  embrace  of  the  radicals,  prepared 
to  follow  them  to  any  length  short  of  negro  suffrage. 

On  the  twenty-eighth  day  of  May  the  legislature  of 
the  state,  after  passing  an  act  disqualifying  for  office  all 
persons  who  had  held  conspicuous  positions  in  the  Con 
federacy,  adjourned  until  the  next  fall.  No  sooner, 
however,  had  the  joint  resolution  proposing  the  Four 
teenth  Amendment  passed  both  Houses  of  Congress, 
than  Brownlow  made  haste  to  call  the  legislature  back  so 
that  the  President 's  own  state  might  be,  if  possible,  the 
first  to  ratify  a  constitutional  amendment  which  the 
President  opposed.  But  the  governor  might  call,  yet 
in  the  unsettled  condition  of  the  state  the  legislators 
would  not  come.  There  seems  to  have  been  no  diffi 
culty  with  the  Senate.  But,  to  make  a  quorum  of  the 
House,  fifty-six  members  or  two-thirds  of  the  whole 
number  must  be  got  together,  and  fifty-six  would  not 
or  did  not  come.  Some  sent  in  their  resignations ;  the 
governor  refused  to  accept  them;  others  refused  to 
attend  at  all  until  the  proposed  amendment  was  sub 
mitted  to  their  constituents.  Others  attended  but  at 
the  critical  moment  absented  themselves  and  broke  the 
quorum.  The  governor  applied  to  General  Thomas, 


FOURTEENTH   AMENDMENT  99 

who  commanded  the  United  States  troops  still  in  the 
state,  for  military  assistance,  which  under  instructions 
from  Washington  Thomas  refused.  The  fighting 
parson  thus  driven  to  the  wall  proved  equal  to  the 
emergency.  On  the  nineteenth  day  of  July,  he  man 
aged  to  get  together  fifty-four  members— two  short  of 
a  quorum.  Two  more  were  in  the  capital  but  being 
friendly  to  the  President  they  persisted  in  absenting 
themselves  from  the  House.  They  were  taken  into 
custody  by  the  sergeant-at-arms,  dragged  into  the  room 
of  that  officer  adjoining  the  Hall  of  the  House,  held 
there  by  main  force  while  the  voting  was  going  on,  and 
counted  as  present  by  the  Speaker.  The  amendment 
was  declared  ratified  by  the  House  by  a  vote  of  forty- 
three  yeas  to  eleven  nays — not  voting  two. 

During  these  days  the  majority  in  Congress  were 
differing  among  themselves  over  a  mode  of  adjourning 
so  as  still  to  keep  a  check  upon  the  President's  power 
of  removal  and  his  general  disposition  to  thwart  their 
measures.  The  weather  was  hot.  The  members 
wanted  to  go  home.  But  they  were  afraid  to  leave 
the  President  alone.  A  call  for  a  convention  of  Union 
men  without  distinction  of  party  to  meet  in  Philadel 
phia,  the  public  adhesion  of  prominent  members  of  the 
Cabinet  to  the  movement,  the  resignation  of  the  Post 
master-General  on  the  eleventh  of  July  and  of  the 
Attorney-General  on  the  sixteenth  and  the  appointment 
of  Alexander  W.  Eandall  and  Henry  Stanbery  as 
their  respective  successors,  an  address  to  the  country 
by  the  Democratic  members  of  Congress:— all  added 
to  the  solicitudes  of  the  hour.  Into  this  arena  buz- 


100  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

zing  with  party  anxieties,  party  perplexities,  party 
passions  and  suppressed  party  quarrels,  the  tidings  of 
Parson  Brownlow's  latest  achievement  dropped  like 
a  spell.  On  the  day  of  its  date,  the  secretary  of  the 
Senate  read  to  the  grave  and  reverend  signiors  gath 
ered  around  his  desk  the  following  telegram  sent  him 
by  the  jubilating  governor  of  Tennessee : 

"NASHVILLE,  July  19,  1866. 
HON.  J.  W.  FORNEY, 

Secretary  United  States  Senate,  Washington. 
We  have  fought  the  battle  and  won  it.     We  have  ratified 
the  constitutional  amendment  in  the  House — 43  voting  for 
it,  11  against  it,  two  of  Andrew  Johnson's  tools  not  voting. 
Give  my  respects  to  the  dead  dog  of  the  White  House. 

W.  G.  BROWNLOW." 

As  was  remarked  next  day  by  senator  Cowan :  ' '  This 
is  the  first  time  in  the  history  of  the  Senate,  unques 
tionably,  that  such  a  dropping  as  this  has  fallen  from 
so  foul  a  bird  into  this  chamber,  and  it  is  the  first  time, 
I  think,  in  the  history  of  this  chamber,  where  members 
of  this  body  would  sit  patiently  by  and  not  vindicate 
themselves  from  the  charges  of  being  accessories  to 
such  vituperation.  And  this  is  published  with  joyful 
acclaim  by  an  officer  of  this  body,  published  in  the  very 
sanctuary  of  American  decency." 

The  immediate  consequence  of  the  news  conveyed 
by  this  scurrilous  missive  was  the  passage  by  the  House 
of  a  joint-resolution  declaring  that  Tennessee  was 
"restored  to  her  proper  practical  relations  to  the 

*  Globe,  id.,  p.  3957. 


TENNESSEE.  101 

Union  and  again  entitled  to  be  represented  by  senators 
and  representatives  in  Congress,  duly  elected  and  quali 
fied,  upon  their  taking  the  oath  of  office";  though  not 
without  a  struggle  by  the  radicals,  headed  by  Stevens, 
to  postpone  the  matter,  and  a  protest  and  speech 
by  Mr.  Boutwell  against  it.  When  reported  to  the 
Senate  the  resolution  had  undergone  a  metamorphosis 
which  gave  rise  to  a  lengthy  debate  highly  illustrative 
of  the  diversity  of  opinion  among  the  majority.  From 
a  simple  declaration  of  the  admission  of  Tennessee  it 
had  become  an  elaborate  document.  The  preamble 
might  be  described  as  a  synopsis  of  the  history  of  the 
state  during  her  insurrection  and  reconstruction,  made 
up  to  exhibit  the  exceptional  circumstances  which  justi 
fied  her  admission,  together  with  the  assertion  of  the 
doctrine  that  none  of  the  seceding  states  can  "be  re 
stored  to  its  former  political  relations  in  the  Union 
without  the  consent  of  the  law-making  power  of  the 
United  States."  The  resolution  proper  was  also  en 
tirely  remodeled  so  as  to  declare  "that  the  United  States 
do  hereby  recognize  the  government  of  the  state  of 
Tennessee  ...  as  the  legitimate  government  of  said 
State,  entitled  to  all  the  rights  of  a  State  government 
under  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,"  and 
there  end.  The  Senate  preamble,  after  being  once 
stricken  out,  was  finally  adopted  after  being  amended 
to  placate  Sumner  and  Brown  (to  no  purpose),  but  the 
House  form  of  the  resolution  prevailed  over  that  of  the 
Senate.  In  this  shape  the  joint  resolution  passed  both 
Houses,  protests  being  made  in  the  course  of  the  debate 
by  many  members  that  the  proceeding  should  not  be 


102  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

considered  a  pledge  or  precedent  for  the  admission  of 
the  other  excluded  states..  The  affirmation  of  the  Con 
gressional  dogma  of  reconstruction,  explicit  in  the  pre 
amble  and  implicit  in  the  resolution,  it  was  thought, 
would  place  the  President  in  a  most  embarrassing  posi 
tion.  Either  he  must  veto  the  resolution  and  thus 
defeat  one  of  his  most  cherished  objects,  viz:  the  ad 
mission  of  his  state,  or  he  must  approve  a  doctrine  he 
was  known  by  frequent  utterances  wholly  to  condemn. 
He  met  the  occasion  like  a  statesman.  The  resolution 
reached  him  in  the  evening.  He  did  not  keep  it  ten 
days.  He  did  not  veto  it.  He  signed  it  the  very  next 
morning;  and  he  accompanied  his  signature  with  a 
message  to  the  House  expressing  his  dissent  on  matters 
of  form,  of  which  this  is  the  opening  paragraph : 

"The  preamble  simply  consists  of  statements,  some  of 
which  are  assumed,  while  the  resolution  is  merely  a  declara 
tion  of  opinion.  It  comprises  no  legislation  nor  does  it 
confer  any  power  which  is  binding  upon  the  respective 
Houses,  the  Executive,  or  the  States.  It  does  not  admit  to 
their  seats  in  Congress  the  Senators  and  Representatives 
from  the  State  of  Tennessee;  for,  notwithstanding  the 
passage  of  the  resolution,  each  House,  in  the  exercise  of  the 
constitutional  right  to  judge  for  itself  of  the  election,  re 
turns  and  qualifications  of  its  members,  may,  in  its  discretion, 
admit  them  or  continue  to  exclude  them.  If  a  joint  resolu 
tion  of  this  kind  were  necessary  and  binding  as  a  condition- 
precedent  to  the  admission  of  members  of  Congress,  it 
would  happen,  in  the  event  of  a  veto  by  the  Executive,  that 
senators  and  representatives  could  only  be  admitted  to  the 
halls  of  legislation  by  a  two-thirds  vote  of  the  two  Houses. ' ' 


TENNESSEE.  103 

"Notwithstanding  the  anomalous  character  of  this 
proceeding,"  the  President  .approved  the  resolution, 
with  the  proviso,  however,  that  such  approval  was  not 
to  be  considered  "as  an  acknowledgment  of  the  right 
of  Congress  to  pass  laws  preliminary  to  the  admission 
of  the  duly  qualified  representatives  from  any  of  the 
States ' ' ;  nor  as  committing  him  to  all  the  statements  in 
the  preamble,  some  of  which,  he  remarks,  are  contrary 
to  fact,  especially  the  assertion  that  the  state  of  Ten 
nessee  has  ratified  the  proposed  constitutional  amend 
ment,  no  official  information  of  which  has  been  filed  in 
the  Department  of  State;  on  the  contrary,  "unofficial 
information  from  the  most  reliable  sources  induces  the 
belief  that  the  amendment  has  not  yet  been  constitu 
tionally  sanctioned  by  the  Legislature."*  After  the 
reading  of  the  message,  the  eight  representatives 
elected  as  long  ago  as  August,  1865— four  Johnson 
and  four  radical  Republicans— were  declared  entitled 
to  their  seats,  and  those  present  were  sworn  in.  In 
the  Senate  matters  did  not  move  so  smoothly.  Joseph 
S.  Fowler,  one  of  the  senators-elect,  whose  opinions 
on  the  burning  issues  were  well  known,  was  sworn  and 
took  his  seat  without  a  word ;  but  when  the  credentials 
of  his  colleague  were  presented,  there  was  trouble.  The 
fidelity  of  David  T.  Patterson  to  the  Union  had  been 
shown,  not  at  a  distance  and  in  safety,  but  in  the  very 
midst  of  the  battle.  He  had  suffered  arrests  and  im 
prisonments,  had  been  driven  into  the  woods  and 
banished  from  his  home.  But  he  was  a  son-in-law  of 

*  For  admission  of  Tennessee  see  Globe,  id.,  pp.   3987,   4008,  Sen.; 
Pres.  Mess.  4102;  p.  4056,  House. 


104  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Andrew  Johnson  and  known  as  a  supporter  of  his 
policy.  It  was  gall  and  wormwood  to  those  of  the 
leaders  who  had  turned  out  Stockton,  to  witness  the 
reinforcement  of  the  scanty  ranks  of  the  minority  by 
so  close  an  ally  of  the  President.  Scanning  his  record 
with  hostile  eye  they  discovered  one  weak  spot.  A 
judge  of  the  Circuit  Court  of  his  state  since  1854,  he 
was  reflected  by  his  Unionist  neighbors  over  an  open 
secessionist  in  1862  by  four  thousand  majority;  but 
that  section  of  the  state  being  overrun  after  this  time  by 
Confederate  soldiers  he  could  not  serve  unless  he  took 
the  oath  to  the  Confederate  States.  He  yielded  to  the 
entreaties  of  the  struggling  Union  men  who  had  elected 
him,  and  was  sworn  in ;  at  the  same  time  declaring  that 
he  owed  no  allegiance  to  the  Confederate  States  and  did 
not  consider  that  part  of  the  oath  binding.  He  held 
a  few  terms  of  court  where  he  could  find  grand  juries 
of  Union  men  until  September,  1863,  when  the  federal 
troops  reaching  Knoxville  he  succeeded  in  escaping, 
not  to  return  to  his  own  district  until  the  close  of 
the  war.  Upon  this  one  delinquency  in  an  other 
wise  heroic  career,  Sumner  laid  his  cold  finger  and 
moved  a  reference  of  the  credentials.  The  senator- 
elect  stood  ready  to  take  the  test  oath,  not  doubting  in 
his  heart  and  conscience  that  he  could  lawfully  and 
honorably  do  so ;  but  such  senators  as  Sumner  thought 
they  had  the  right  to  judge  for  him  in  this  respect;  and 
by  his  own  solicitation  the  reference  was  conceded  so 
that  he  might  give  a  full  explanation  to  the  committee. 
During  the  interval  that  elapsed  before  the  com 
mittee's  report,  Wade,  as  if  to  countervail  this  imminent 


TENNESSEE.  105 

accession  to  the  ranks  of  the  minority,  called  up  a  bill 
for  the  admission  of  the  territory  of  Nebraska  as  a 
state,  which  he  had  introduced  a  few  days  before.  Why 
he  took  this  course,  instead  of  bringing  up  for  consid 
eration  his  bill  for  the  admission  of  Colorado  which 
lay  on  the  table  under  a  veto,  it  is  difficult  to  explain. 
If  he  could  not  override  the  veto  of  the  one,  how  could 
he  expect  to  override  the  veto  of  the  other  ?  The  same 
•obnoxious  word  "wThite"  disfigured  the  constitution  of 
Nebraska ;  and,  although  the  number  of  negroes  in  the 
territory  was  but  fifty,  that  word  was  certain  in  the 
one  case  as  in  the  other  to  arouse  the  antagonism  of 
Sumner.  In  fact,  upon  that  senator  the  effect  would 
have  been  the  same  were  there  no  negroes  in  the  ter 
ritory  at  all.  If  Wade  cherished  any  expectations  of 
placating  the  Massachusetts  senator  he  was  cruelly 
awakened.  Sumner  went  at  him  with  his  favorite 
argument  that  the  constitution  was  not  republican  in 
form,  to  the  height  of  which  he  wished  that  his  friend 
" could  lift  himself."  Wade  deserved  his  punishment. 
On  the  merits  the  Nebraska  case  was  no  better  than  the 
case  of  Colorado.  The  territory  was  a  vast  wilderness 
inhabited  by  a  scattered  population  of  not  more  than 
forty  thousand — or  less  than  one-third  of  the  number 
required  under  the  ratio  for  one  representative.  At 
an  election  held,  not  under  the  enabling  act  of  Congress 
but  under  an  act  of  the  territorial  legislature,  to  ratify 
the  constitution  of  the  future  state,  less  than  eight  thou 
sand  votes  were  cast  and  the  majority  in  favor  of  the 
constitution  was  only  one  hundred,  though  many  frauds 
and  much  intimidation  were  charged.  But,  not  with- 


106  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

standing  the  opposition  of  Simmer,  the  Ohio  senator 
did  succeed  in  getting  his  bill  through  the  Senate,  but 
by  the  disheartening  vote  of  24  to  18.  The  House 
passed  it  the  same  day.  The  President  failing  to  sign 
it,  the  adjournment  of  Congress  prevented  it  from  be 
coming  a  law.* 

In  the  middle  of  the  contest  over  this  territory,  the 
committee  made  its  report  on  the  case  of  the  senator 
from  Tennessee.  After  giving  the  facts  as  we  have 
given  them  already,  it  presented  a  resolution  declaring 
that  David  T.  Patterson  was  duly  qualified  and  entitled 
to  his  seat;  stating  also  "that  in  accepting  the  office  of 
judge  and  taking  the  official  oath  he  did  not  intend  to 
acknowledge  any  allegiance  to  or  any  friendship  for  the 
Confederate  government, ' '  but  acted  throughout  ' '  with 
a  sincere  desire  to  benefit  and  preserve  the  Union." 
Even  so  ultra  a  radical  as  Clark  confessed :  ' l  That  there 
was  not  a  shadow  of  doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  person 
who  heard  him  (Patterson)  before  the  committee  that 
he  had  been  throughout  a  Union  man ;  and  not  only  a 
Union  man  but  such  a  Union  man  as  would  put  some  of 
us  to  shame  that  we  should  be  admitted  into,  the  Senate 
because  we  were  Union  men  and  he  should  be  put  out. ' ' 
After  an  effort  to  solve  the  question  by  modifying  the 
test-oath  to  suit  the  particular  case,  to  which  the  House 
with  much  heat  refused  its  consent,  the  Senate  in  the 
last  hours  of  the  session  adopted  the  resolution  de 
claring  the  senator  entitled  to  his  seat  by  a  vote  of 
twenty-one  yeas  to  eleven  nays.  After  a  brief  interval, 

*For  Nebraska  see  Globe,  id.,  pp.  4204-4213,  4219-4222,  4276. 


TENNESSEE.  107 

Reverdy  Johnson  moved  that  he  be  permitted  to  qualify. 
There  was  no  dissent.  Amid  an  impressive  silence, 
David  T.  Patterson  advanced  to  the  desk  and,  with 
out  the  slightest  hesitation  or  a  single  apparent  tremour, 
took  the  full  "iron-clad"  oath,  which  so  many  of  his 
colleagues,  now  looking  on,  affected  to  believe  he  could 
not  take  without  manifest  perjury.* 

The  closing  scene  of  the  absorbing  drama  of  the  ses 
sion  placed  the  rebel-judge,  as  he  was  called,  upon  the 
bench  of  the  High  Court  of  Impeachment. 

*  For  Patterson,  Globe,  id.,  pp.  4162-4169,  4213-4219,  4293. 


SECTION   VI 

THE   APPEAL   TO    THE    COUNTRY 
/ 

THE   contest   was   now-  transferred  to   the   country. 
Another  House  of  Representatives  was  to  be  chosen, 
and,  if  the  administration  by  a  coalition  of  its  Republi 
can  supporters  with  the  Democrats  could  manage  to 
capture  more  than  one-third,  the  veto  would  become 
once  more  effective  to  guard  the  reconstruction  plan 
of  the  President  while  it  grew  in  favor  with  disinter 
ested  lovers  of  the  Union.      A  political  revolution  in 
the  North  could  hardly  be  expected,  but  the  states  of 
Connecticut,    New   York,    New   Jersey,    Pennsylvania, 
Ohio  and  Indiana,  as  shown  by  recent  local  elections, 
furnished  fair  fighting-grounds.      The  dispersal  of  the 
Congress  left  the  President  with  a  free  hand  to  weed 
out  the  opponents  of  his  policy  from  the  crowded  ranks 
of  office-holders,  and  the  President  was  now  resolved 
to  use  his  power.      Twelve  hundred  and  eighty-three 
postmasters,   for  example,   were   removed   during  the 
campaign,    and    the    same    process    went    on    in    the 
Treasury  Department  with  its  custom-houses  and  in 
ternal    revenue    districts.       The    Cabinet    was    recon 
structed;    such   doubtful   or   lukewarm   supporters   as 
Dennison,    Speed   and    Harlan   giving    place    to    such 
staunch  followers  as  Randall,  Stanbery  and  Orville  H. 
Browning,  once  a  bosom  friend  of  Lincoln  ?s.     The  real 
choice  before  the  people,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind, 

(  108) 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     109 


was  not  between  the  reconstruction  plan  of  the  Presi 
dent  and  the  reconstruction  plan  of  the  Congress,  be 
cause  the  Congress  proffered  no  plan.  A  constitutional 
amendment  was  before  the  legislatures  of  the  several 
states  for  ratification  or  rejection,  but  the  bill  which 
opened  the  door  of  the  Union  to  the  excluded  states 
as  a  reward  for  ratification  had  failed  to  become  a  law. 
The  admission  of  Tennessee,  as  we  have  seen,  was  due 
to  exceptional  circumstances  and  accompanied  with 
loud  protests  that  it  was  to  be  no  pledge  or  precedent. 
The  real  issue  of  the  campaign,  as  made  by  the  atti 
tude  and  course  of  action  of  the  Congressional  majority, 
was:  Shall  the  excluded  states  be  admitted  into  the'? 
Union  with  constitutions  denying  suffrage  to  the  freed- 
men  ?  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  at  this  period  the 
most  influential  leaders  of  the  Republican  party  had 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  any  restoration  of  the 
Union  unaccompanied  by  some  measure  of  white  dis- 
franchisement,  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  negro  en 
franchisement,  on  the  other,  would  be  fatal  to  the  con 
tinued  supremacy  of  that  party  in  the  councils  of  the 
nation.  The  powerful  radical  wing  openly  avowed 
its  determination  to  permit  no  restoration  of  the  Union 
without  negro  suffrage;  and,  judging  from  its  success 
in  the  Congress  in  striking  the  keynote  of  the  opposi 
tion  to  the  President,  it  was  bound  to  drive  the  party 
for  the  sake  of  its  self-preservation  if  for  nothing  else/ 
into  the  embrace  of  its  creed.  The  majority  in  the 
northern  states,  however,  was  not  ready  yet  for  negro 
suffrage  either  at  home  or  in  the  South;  and  the  bold 
presentation  of  the  real  issue  might  eventuate  in  the 


110  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

overthrow  of  the  party.  That  issue,  therefore,  the 
politicians  set  to  work  to  obscure  or  falsify.  They 
insisted  that  the  only  question  was  whether  the  states 
reconstructed  under  the  President's  plan  should  be 
admitted  into  the  Union  without  ratification  of  the 
proposed  amendment,  or,  as  in  the  case  of  Tennessee, 
after  its  ratification.  Knowing  that  the  amendment 
had  been  carefully  constructed  so  as  to  make  it  certain 
of  rejection  by  the  South,  they  promised  the  people 
of  the  North  an  immediate  restoration  of  the  Union 
if  only  the  people  of  the  still  excluded  states,  by  adopt 
ing  an  amendment  of  the  federal  Constitution,  would 
make  such  fair  and  moderate  concessions  as  the  reduc 
tion  of  their  representation  because  of  the  multitude 
of  freedmen  they  would  not  permit  to  vote,  the  guaran 
tee  of  the  Union,  and  repudiation  of  the  rebel,  debt. 
And,  under  this  false  issue,  the  campaign  was  fought 
and  won. 

Two  days  after  the  adjournment  of  Congress,  an 
event  occurred  which,  by  rekindling  the  exasperation 
of  northern  Republicans  against  the  Southern  people, 
struck  a  serious  blow  against  the  cause  of  the  President 
at  the  very  opening  of  the  battle.  A  massacre  was  per 
petrated  in  New  Orleans  over  an  unlawful  attempt  to 
revive  and  pack  the  convention  of  1864,  which  framed 
the  constitution  under  which  the  present  government 
of  Louisiana  was  acting,  for  the  purpose  of  grafting 
upon  the  constitution  a  provision  granting  suffrage  to 
the  negroes;  notwithstanding  that  the  convention  had 
been  extinct  two  years  and  the  constitution  ratified  by 
the  people.  The  police  made  an  attack  upon  the  hall 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     111 

where  the  members  of  the  convention  and  a  crowd  of 
colored  people  were  gathered  together,  and  numbers 
of  them  were  shot  down  or  stabbed,  and  mutilated 
after  they  were  down  and  appealing  for  mercy. 
After  the  slaughter  was  over,  the  United  States  troops 
reached  the  scene  and  that  same  night  the  city  was 
placed  under  martial  law.  The  President  was  as 
sailed  in  one  breath  for  not  having  protected  the  con 
vention,  and  in  the  next  for  not  having  instructed  the 
commander  of  the  troops  what  to  do,  although  a  tele 
gram  from  the  commanding  officer  to  the  Secretary 
of  War  asking  instructions  was  not  communicated  to 
the  President,  and  was  suffered  to  remain  unanswered 
by  Stanton.  Prominent  members  of  Congress  were 
in  complicity  with  the  convention-plot,  and  the  Presi 
dent  on  his  side  openly  charged  that  the  riot  was 
"substantially  planned  by  the  radical  Congress." 

On  the  fourteenth  of  August,  1866,  the  convention 
of  the  National  Unionists  met  in  Philadelphia.  s 
Extra  effort  had  been  put  forth  by  the  Republican- 
supporters  of  the  administration  to  make  it  a  success 
significant  of  the  strength  of  their  peculiar  position. 
The  President  and  every  member  of  the  Cabinet  but  the 
silent  Secretary  of  War  had  been  conspicuously  active 
in  the  promotion  of  the  same  object.  A  notice  had 
gone  forth  to  all  the  office-holders  that  they  were  ex 
pected  by  the  administration  to  support  the  movement 
by  their  presence  at  the  convention  if  convenient,  but 
at  all  events  by  their  open  advocacy  of  the  principles 

*  Report  of   Board  of  Investigation,   Imp.  Inv.,  p.   1075.       St.   Louis 
Speech,  id.,  531. 


112  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  convention  was  called  to  advance.  The  assemblage 
was  called  to  order  by  Randall,  the  War-Governor  of 
Wisconsin  and  now  Postmaster-General.  General 
John  A.  Dix  was  temporary  president.  Major-Gen 
eral  Couch,  the  head  of  the  delegation  from  Massachu 
setts,  walked  up  the  aisle  arm-in-arm  with  James  L. 
Orr,  the  head  of  the  delegation  from  South  Carolina. 
Every  one  of  the  thirty-six  states  was  represented  by 
a  delegation  of  respectable,  intelligent,  well-known 
and  influential  citizens.  Officers  of  renown  in  the 
armies  so  recently  victorious  shook  hands  under  the 
old  flag  with  officers  of  renown  in  the  armies  so  recently 
vanquished.  Doolittle  was  made  permanent  chairman, 
Cowan  reported  the  resolutions,  Henry  J.  Raymond 
read  the  address  to  the  people.  The  friends  of  the 
convention  thought  it  a  great  success,  while,  to  the 
leading  politicians  of  the  dominant  party,  the  presence 
of  the  statesmen  and  heroes  of  the  councils  and  battle 
fields  of  secession,  which  alone  gave  the  gathering 
any  historical  significance,  furnished  a  cry  which 
served  to  keep  their  following  in  line,  and.  in  the  end, 
rendered  the  movement  detrimental  to  the  cause  of 
the  administration.  They  denounced  it  as  a  hobnob 
bing  with  "redhanded  rebels."  They  ridiculed  it 
under  the  name  of  the  "Arm-in-arm  Convention."  A 
committee  of  two  members  from  every  state  was  ap 
pointed  to  present  to  the  President  a  copy  of  the  pro 
ceedings,  and,  on  Saturday,  the  eighteenth,  this  body 
of  over  seventy  men  gathered  in  the  east  room  of  the 
White  House,  where  Reverdy  Johnson,  the  chairman, 
in  a  courtly  speech  discharged  the  duty  of  the  com- 


yf 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     113 

mittee.  The  President,  with  General  Grant  standing 
at  his  right  hand,  in  a  quiet  conversational  tone  uttered 
these  sentences,  little  dreaming  that  he  was  committing 
what  the  House  of  Representatives  by  and  by  was  to 
pronounce  "a  high  misdemeanor  in  office." 

* '  We  have  witnessed  in  one  department  of  the  government 
every  endeavor  to  prevent  the  restoration  of  peace,  harmony 
and  union.  We  have  seen  hanging  upon  the  verge  of  the 
government,  as  it  were,  a  body  called,  or  which  assumes  to 
be  the  Congress  of  the  United  States,  while,  in  fact,  it  is  a 
Congress  of  only  a  part  of  the  states.  We  have  seen  this 
Congress  pretend  to  be  for  the  Union,  when  its  very  step 
and  act  tended  to  perpetuate  disunion  and  make  a  disrup 
tion  of  the  states  inevitable.  .  .  .  We  have  seen  Congress 
gradually  encroach  step  by  step,  upon  constitutional  rights, 
and  violate,  day  after  day  and  month  after  month,  funda 
mental  principles  of  the  government.  We  have  seen  a  Con 
gress  that  seemed  to  forget  that  there  was  a  limit  to  the 
sphere  and  scope  of  legislation.  We  have  seen  a  Congress 
in  a  minority  assume  to  exercise  power  which,  allowed  to 
be  consummated,  would  result  in  despotism  or  monarchy 
itself."* 

Having  sounded  this  note  of  defiance,  the  President 
made  his  preparations  for  a  tour  through  the  North. 
The  cornerstone  of  a  monument  to  the  memory  of 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  to  be  laid  in  Chicago  on  the 
sixth  of  September,  and  the  President,  having  been 
invited  to  be  present  at  the  ceremony,  purposed  to  avail 
himself  of  the  opportunity  to  visit  the  principal  cities 

*  Version  used  in  Article  X.      For  whole  speech  see  Pres.  Trial,  Vol. 
1,  p.  301. 


114  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

along  his  route  and  address  himself  in  person  directly 
to  the  people.  He  had  an  unbounded  faith  in  their 
sense  of  justice  and  their  collective  wisdom,  and  a 
confidence  no  less  unbounded  in  the  efficacy  of  his 
homely  methods  of  appealing  to  the  masses  face  to  face. 
On  the  twenty-eighth  of  August  he  started  on  this  un 
lucky  journey.  In  his  remarks  to  the  Virginia  delega 
tion  the  February  before,  he  made  use  of  the  expres 
sion,  "As  we  swing  round  the  circle  of  the  Union7';* 
and  the  present  progress  was  called  by  all  the  wits  "a 
swinging  round  the  circle."  He  was  accompanied  by 
Welles  and  Randall  of  his  Cabinet  (Seward  joining 
the  party  in  New  York),  by  General  Grant  and  Admiral 
Farragut.  The  municipal  authorities  of  Philadelphia, 
in  fear  of  committing  themselves  to  the  side  of  the 
administration,  scattered  to  the  surrounding  summer 
resorts  at  the  approach  of  the  distinguished  party  and 
there  was  no  official  welcome;  but  the  citizens  headed 
by  General  Meade  turned  out  in  goodly  numbers.  New 
York,  the  next  day,  by  an  ovation,  both  official  and 
spontaneous,  made  up  for  the  coldness  of  the  Quaker 
City.  The  crowds  were  uproarious  for  "Andy,"  for 
Grant  and  for  Farragut,  as  these  three  were  driven 
in  procession  to  the  City  Hall.  There,  in  the  historic 
Governor's  Room,  they  were  welcomed  by  Mayor  John 
T.  Hoffman.  While  Johnson,  in  a  low  conversational 
tone,  barely  audible  throughout  the  Chamber,  was  ad 
dressing  the  mayor  who  stood  directly  in  front  of  him, 
Seward  sat  almost  immediately  beneath  his  own 
portrait  as  governor  of  the  state  that  hung  on  the 

*  McPh.  Recon.,  p.  58. 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     115 

wall.  The  contrast  was  striking  and  in  some  respects 
mournful.  The  picture  was  a  full-length  representa 
tion  of  a  tall,  slender,  agile,  clean-looking  figure,  in 
the  prime  of  manhood,  which  seemed  about  to  spring 
out  of  the  canvas.  The  figure  below,  huddled  together 
in  its  seat,  wrinkled,  untidy,  the  face  swollen  and  red, 
the  cheek  and  drooping  jaw  deformed  by  a  jagged 
scar,  looked  like  the  broken  relic  of  the  young  Apollo 
that  stared  at  it  from  the  frame.  That  night,  at  a 
gorgeous  banquet,  the  President  made  one  of  his  char 
acteristic  speeches  which  the  radical  press  misprinted 
and  made  fun  of  the  next  day.  Up  the  Hudson  the 
presidential  cortege  went  to  the  capital,  where  Gov 
ernor  Fenton  accorded  the  President  a  reception  so 
chilling  as  to  draw  subsequently  from  the  Secretary 
of  State  a  severe  animadversion.  Thence  across  the 
state,  stopping  one  night  at  Auburn,  the  home  of 
Seward,  they  were  welcomed  at  Buffalo  by  Ex-Presi 
dent  Fillmore  in  a  speech  remarkable  for  its  unquali 
fied  condemnation  of  the  Republican  party's  present 
course.  Thence  to  Cleveland,  where  they  arrived  on 
the  evening  of  the  third  of  September.  Going  out  on 
the  balcony  of  the  hotel  where  he  stopped,  the  Presi 
dent  was  ^formally  welcomed  by  the  mayor,  and,  then, 
in  obedience  to  the  clamours  of  a  large  crowd  in  the 
streets,  he  was  introduced.  Greeted  by  repeated  calls 
for  Grant,  he  excused  the  general's  failure  to  appear 
by  the  plea  of  illness.  In  the  course  of  his  remarks, 
alluding  to  the  saying  that  he  was  an  alien  and  could 
not  be  President,  he  said:  "All  that  is  necessary,  there 
fore,  is  to  declare  the  office  vacant  or  on  the  pretext  to  ' 


116  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

prefer  articles  of  impeachment"  and  drive  him  from 
power;  when  a  reference  to  his  being  on  the  same 
ticket  with  Lincoln  was  met  by  the  exclamation:  "Un 
fortunate,  ' '  uttered  by  some  one  in  the  audience.  John 
son  retorted:  "Yes,  I  know  there  are  some  who  say 
'  unfortunate. '  Yes,  unfortunate  for  some  that  God 
rules  on  high  and  deals  in  justice.  Yes,  unfortunate. 
The  ways  of  providence  are  mysterious  and  incompre 
hensible,  controlling  all  those  who  exclaim  '  unfortun 
ate.'  If  my  predecessor  had  lived,  the  vials  of  wrath 
from  a  mendacious  press  and  subsidized  gang  of  hire 
lings  would  have  been  poured  out  upon  him,  as  upon 
me."  Another  cried:  "Hang  Jeff  Davis."  His 
answer  was  ready:  "Why  don't  you  hang  him? 
Haven't  you  got  the  Court?  Haven't  you  got  the  At 
torney  General!  Who  is  your  Chief  Justice  who  re 
fused  to  sit  on  his  trial?  I  am  not  the  Attorney  Gen 
eral.  I  am  no  jury."  "I  called  upon  your  Congress 
that  is  trying  to  break  up  the  government."  "Did 
your  Congress  order  any  of  them  to  be  tried?"  An 
other  shouted :  ' '  Traitor,  traitor. ' '  He  inquired  for  the 
man  who  could  place  his  finger  upon  one  pledge  Andrew 
Johnson  had  violated:  "Who  is  he?  What  language 
does  he  speak?  What  religion  does  he  profess? 
Traitor!  my  countrymen:  Will  you  hear  me?  ...  If 
I  were  disposed  to  play  the  orator  and  deal  in  declama 
tion  ...  I  would  take  Mr.  Seward  and  bring  him  before 
you  and  point  to  the  hacks  and  scars  upon  his  person. 
I  would  ask  you  when  he  turned  traitor?"  A  voice 
shouting  1 1  Hang  Thad.  Stevens  and  Wendell  Phillips, ' ' 
he  burst  out:  "Why  not  hang  them?  I  have  been 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     117 

fighting  traitors  South.  They  have  been  whipped  and 
crushed  and  acknowledge  their  defeat  and  now  as  I  go 
round  the  circle  I  am  prepared  to  fight  them  at  the 
North. "  "  I  understand  the  discordant  notes  in  this 
crowd  to-night."  "Some  of  you  talk  about  traitors 
in  the  South  who  have  not  the  courage  to  go  away 
from  your  homes  and  fight  them."  The  brave  men 
were  in  the  field  "while  you  remained  cowardly  at 
home,"  "speculating  and  committing  frauds  on  the 
government."  Some  protesting:  "Is  this  dignified?" 
—he  exclaimed:  "I  understand  you.  You  may  talk 
about  the  dignity  of  the  President.  I  have  been  upon 
the  battlefields  of  this  country."  "I  care  not  for  my 
dignity.  There  is  a  certain  portion  of  our  country 
men  who  will  respect  a  citizen  whenever  he  is  entitled 
to  respect.  There  is  another  class  who  have  no  respect 
for  themselves,  and  consequently  they  cannot  respect 
any  one  else.  I  know  a  man  and  a  gentleman  when 
ever  I  see  him.  I  have  only  to  look  in  his  face ;  and 
(pointing  at  one  of  the  noisiest  in  the  crowd)  if  I  were 
to  see  yours  by  the  light  of  day  I  do  not  doubt  but 
t^at  I  should  see  cowardice  upon  it.  Come  out  here 
where  I  can  see  you.  If  ever  you  shoot  a  man  you 
will  do  it  in  the  dark,  and  pull  the  trigger  when  no  one 
is  by."  Having  silenced  his  would-be  tormentors  at 
last,  he  proceeded  to  commit  without  rebuke  his  second 
"high  misdemeanor  in  office"  (according  to  the  sub 
sequent  charge  of  the  House) : 

"In  bidding  you  farewell  I  would  ask  you,  with  all  the 
pains  this  Congress  has  taken  to  poison  the  minds  of  their 


118  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

constituents  against  me— what  has  this  Congress  done? 
Have  they  done  anything  to  restore  the  Union  of  these 
States?  No;  on  the  contrary,  they  have  done  everything 
to  prevent  it ;  and  because  I  stand  now  where  I  did  when  the 
rebellion  commenced,  I  have  been  denounced  as  a  traitor. 
Who  has  suffered  more,  who  has  run  greater  risks  than  I? 
But  this  factious  domineering  party  in  Congress  has  under 
taken  to  poison  the  minds  of  the  American  people." 

He  closed  quite  triumphantly;  replying  to  one  or 
two  belated  cries  about  "New  Orleans,"  "Louisiana," 
i  i  You  let  the  negroes  vote  in  Ohio  before  you  talk  about 
negroes  voting  in  Louisiana.  Take  the  beam  out  of 
your  own  eye  before  you  see  the  mote  that  is  in  your 
neighbor's.  You  are  very  much  disturbed  about  New 
Orleans  but  you  won't  let  the  negro  go  to  the  ballot 
box  in  Ohio.  We. understand  these  questions." 

The  next  morning,  the  presidential  party  sped  on 
across  the  states  of  Ohio  and  Indiana  to  Chicago.  The 
exercises  there  were  conducted  with  comparative  de 
corum,  and  the  illustrious  visitors  then  started  for  St. 
Louis,  reaching  that  city  on  the  eighth.  In  the  even 
ing  the  President  attended  a  banquet  at  the  Southern 
Hotel.  A  great  crowd  assembled  outside  and  clamoured 
for  a  speech.  The  President,  at  last  but  with  manifest 
reluctance,  yielded  to  repeated  calls  and  came  out  on 
the  balcony,  intending  to  make  a  short  address  of 
thanks.  Hardly  had  he  uttered  a  word,  however,  when 
interruptions,  evidently  preconcerted,  began.  The 
New  Orleans  riot  being  now  thrown  in  his  teeth  he 

*  McPh.  Recon.,  pp.  134-  et  seq.,  and  Trial,  Vol.  1,  p.  328  et  seq. 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     119 

was  provoked  to  commit  a  third  "high  misdemeanor  in 
office, ' '  as  defined  by  the  House  of  Representatives : 

"Perhaps  if  you  had  a  word  or  two  on  the  subject  of 
New  Orleans  you  might  understand  more  about  it  than  you 
do.  ...  If  you  will  take  up  the  riot  at  New  Orleans  and 
trace  it  back  to  the  radical  Congress,  you  will  find  that  the 
riot  at  New  Orleans  was  substantially  planned.  If  you 
will  take  up  their  proceedings  in  their  caucuses  you  will 
understand  that  they  knew  that  a  Convention  was  to  be 
called  which  was  extinct  by  its  power  having  expired;  that 
it  was  said  that  the  intention  was  that  a  new  government 
was  to  be  organized  and  on  the  organization  of  that  gov 
ernment  the  intention  was  to  enfranchise  one  portion  of  the 
population,  called  the  colored  population,  who  had  just 
been  emancipated,  and  at  the  same  time  to  disfranchise 
white  men.  When  you  design  to  talk  about  New  Orleans 
you  ought  to  understand  what  you  are  talking  about. 
When  you  read  the  speeches  that  were  made  and  take  up 
the  facts  on  the  Friday  and  Saturday  before  that  Conven 
tion  sat,  you  will  there  find  that  speeches  were  there  made 
incendiary  in  their  character,  exciting  that  portion  of  the 
population,  the  black  population,  to  arm  themselves  and 
prepare  for  the  shedding  of  blood.  You  will  also  find  that 
that  Convention  did  assemble  in  violation  of  the  law,  and 
the  intention  of  that  Convention  was  to  supersede  the  reor 
ganized  authorities  of  the  state  government  of  Louisiana, 
which  had  been  reorganized  by  the  government  of  the 
United  States;  and  every  man  engaged  in  that  Convention 
with  the  intention  of  superseding  and  upturning  the  civil 
government  which  had  been  recognized  by  the  Government 
of  the  United  States,  I  say,  that  he  was  a  traitor  to  the  Con 
stitution  of  the  United  States,  and  hence  you  find  that 
another  rebellion  was  commenced  having  its  origin  in  the 


120  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

radical  Congress.  ...  So  much  for  the  New  Orleans  riot. 
And  there  was  the  cause  and  origin  of  the  blood  that  was 
shed;  and  every  drop  of  blood  that  was  shed  is  upon  their 
skirts  and  they  are  responsible  for  it. ' ' 

After  this  he  appears  to  have  cut  loose  from  all 
restraint : 

' '  I  have  been  traduced,  I  have  been  slandered,  I  have  been 
maligned,  I  have  been  called  Judas  Iscariot  and  all  that. 
Now,  my  countrymen,  here,  to-night,  it  is  very  easy  to  in 
dulge  in  epithets,  it  is  easy  to  call  a  man  Judas,  and  cry  out 
traitor;  but  when  he  is  called  upon  to  give  arguments  and 
facts  he  is  very  often  wanting.  Judas  Iscariot !  Judas ! 
There  was  a  Judas  and  he  was  one  of  the  twelve  apostles. 
Oh,  yes  the  twelve  apostles  had  a  Christ.  (A  voice  "And 
a  Moses  too";  laughter.)  The  twelve  apostles  had  a  Christ 
and  he  never  could  have  had  a  Judas  unless  he  had  had 
twelve  apostles.  If  I  have  played  the  Judas  who  has  been 
my  Christ  that  I  have  played  the  Judas  with?  Was  it 
Thad.  Stevens  ?  Was  it  Wendell  Phillips  ?  Was  it  Charles 
Simmer?  These  are  the  men  that  stop  and  compare  them 
selves  with  the  Saviour;  and  everybody  that  differs  with 
them  in  opinion  and  try  to  stay  and  arrest  their  diabolical 
and  nefarious  policy,  is  to  be  denounced  as  a  Judas. ' ' 

Again : 

"But  a  short  time  since  I  heard  some  one  say  in  the 
crowd  that  we  had  a  Moses.  Yes,  there  is  a  Moses ;  and  I 
know  sometimes  it  has  been  said  that  I  would  be  the  Moses 
of  the  colored  man.  ...  I  have  tried  to  do  as  much  and 
have  done  as  much— and  when  they  talk  about  Moses,  and 
the  colored  man  being  led  into  the  promised  land,  where  is 
the  land  which  this  clan  proposes  to  lead  them  into?  .  .  . 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     121 

Why,  it  is  to  give  us  a  Freedmen's  Bureau.  .  .  .  The 
Freedmen's  Bureau  was  a  simple  proposition  to  transfer 
four  millions  of  slaves  in  the  United  States  from  their 
original  to  a  new  set  of  taskmasters.  I  have  been  laboring 
for  years  to  emancipate  them ;  and  then  I  was  opposed  to 
seeing  them  transferred  to  a  new  set  of  taskmasters  to  be 
worked  with  more  rigor  than  they  had  been  worked  before. 
Yes,  under  this  new  system  they  would  work  the  slaves,  and 
call  on  the  government  to  bear  all  the  expenses  and  if  there 
were  any  profits  left  why  they  would  pocket  them.  Thus, 
you  the  people  must  pay  the  expenses  of  running  the  ma 
chine  out  of  your  own  pockets  while  they  get  the  profits 
of  it." 

Again : 

"  Because  the  President  chose  to  exercise  the  veto  power, 
he  committed  a  high  offense  and  therefore  ought  to  be  im 
peached.  Yes,  yes,  they  are  ready  to  impeach  him.  And 
if  they  were  satisfied  they  had  the  next  Congress  by  a 
decided  majority  as  this,  upon  some  pretext  or  other— 
violating  the  Constitution,  neglect  of  duty,  or  omitting  to 
enforce  some  act  of  law— upon  some  pretext  or  other,  they 
would  vacate  the  executive  department  of  the  United 
States." 

With  reference  to  the  pardoning  power  be  said: 

"I  reckon  I  have  pardoned  more  men,  turned  more  men 
loose,  and  set  them  at  liberty  that  were  imprisoned,  I 
imagine,  than  any  other  living  man  on  God's  habitable  globe. 
I  turned  forty-seven  thousand  of  our  men  loose  who  were 
engaged  in  the  struggle,  with  the  arms  we  captured  with 
them,  and  who  were  then  in  prison.  I  turned  them  loose. 
Large  numbers  have  applied  for  pardon  and  I  have  granted 


122  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

them  pardon ;  vet  there  are  some  who  condemn  and  hold 
me  responsible  for  doing  wrong.  Yes,  there  are  some  who 
staid  at  home,  who  didn't  go  into  the  field,  that  can  talk 
about  others  being  traitorous  and  being  treacherous. 
There  are  some  who  can  talk  about  blood  and  vengeance 
and  crime  and  everything  to  make  treason  odious,  and  all 
that,  who  never  smelt  gunpowTder  on  either  side.  Yes,  they 
can  condemn  others,  and  recommend  hanging  and  torture 
and  all  that.  If  I  have  erred,  I  have  erred  on  the  side  of 
mercy.  Some  of  these  croakers  have  dared  to  assume  that 
they  are  better  than  the  Saviour  of  men  himself —a  kind  of 
over-religious—better  than  anybody  else;  and  all  wanting 
to  do  Deity 's  work,  thinking  He  cannot  do  it  as  well  as  they 
can." 

As  to  office-holders  he  said: 

' '  Don 't  you  see,  my  countrymen,  it  is  a  question  of  power ; 
and  being  in  power,  as  they  are,  their  object  is  to  perpetuate 
their  power,  since,  when  you  talk  about  turning  them  out, 
oh,  they  talk  about  bread  and  butter.  Yes,  these  men  are 
the  most  perfect  and  complete  bread  and  butter  party  that 
has  ever  appeared  in  this  Government.  When  you  make 
an  effort  or  struggle  to  take  the  nipple  out  of  their  mouths, 
how7  they  clamor.  They  have  stayed  at  home  here  five  or 
six  years,  held  the  offices,  grown  fat,  and  enjoyed  all  the 
emoluments  of  position ;  and  now,  when  you  talk  of  turning 
one  of  them  out,  oh,  it  is  proscription ;  hence  they  come  for 
ward  and  propose,  in  Congress,  to  do  what?  To  pass  laws 
to  prevent  the  Executive  from  turning  anybody  out.  .  .  . 
How  are  these  men  to  be  got  out?  (Voice,  "  Kick  'em  out") 
—unless  your  executive  can  put  them  out,  unless  you  can 
touch  them  through  the  President  ?  Congress  says  he  shall 
not  turn  them  out,  and  they  are  trying  to  pass  laws  to  pre- 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     123 

vent  it  being  done.  Well,  let  me  say  to  you  if  you  will 
stand  by  me  in  this  action,  if  you  will  stand  by  me  in  trying 
to  give  the  people  a  fair  chance— soldiers  and  citizens— to 
participate  in  these  offices,  God  being  willing,  I  will  kick 
them  out.  I  will  kick  them  out  just  as  fast  as  I  can.  Let  me 
say  to  you,  in  concluding,  that  what  I  have  said  I  intended 
to  say.  I  was  provoked  into  this,  and  I  care  not  for.  their 
menaces,  the  taunts  and  the  jeers.  I  care  not  for  threats. 
I  do  not  intend  to  be  bullied  by  my  enemies  nor  overawed 
by  my  friends.  But,  God  willing,  with  your  help,  I  will 
veto  their  measures  whenever  any  of  them  come  to  me."* 

Turning  homeward  from  St.  Louis,  the  President,  on 
reaching  Indianapolis  and  attempting  to  address  the 
citizens,  was  silenced  by  the  mob.  They  yelled  at  him : 
' '  No ;  no ;  we  want  nothing  to  do  with  traitors. "  "  Shut 
up. "  "  We  want  to  hear  from  Grant."  The  Presi 
dent  held  on,  repeatedly  requesting  the  privilege 
of  being  heard.  But  the  crowd  waxed  more  and 
more  infuriated.  They  absolutely  refused  to  hear  a 
word.  Guns  were  flourished.  The  President  retired 
discomfited  for  once.  A  fight  ensued  in  the  streets. 
Pistol  shots  were  fired  and  two  men  were  wounded. 

Thus  ended  the  " swing  around  the  circle."  When 
Johnson  reentered  the  White  House,  he  was  followed 
by  a  storm  of  hisses,  hootings,  guffaws  and  jeers  from 
the  hosts  of  Republican  party  partisans  throughout 
the  whole  North.  Had  this  been  all,  he  might  have 
bidden  defiance  to  their  rage  and  their  ridicule.  But 
his  want  of  dignity,  as  he  was  made  to  appear,  his  in 
sensibility  to  the  decorum  due  to  his  high  office,  his 

*McPh.  Recon.,  pp.   136-140. 


124  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

eagerness  to  exchange  repartee  with  any  opponent  no 
matter  how  low,  his  slovenly  modes  of  speech  and  his 
offences  against  good  taste,  unfairly  blazoned  as  they 
were  before  the  country,  disgusted  many  persons  who 
were  half-inclined  to  his  policy;  made  many  of  the 
judicious  among  his  supporters  hesitate  and  grow  luke 
warm;  forced  his  wannest  supporters  to  hang  their 
heads  for  lack  of  apology;  scattered  abroad  the  ugliest 
scandals  about  his  personal  habits  and  irretrievably 
hurt  his  cause.  Even  the  Democrats,  while  they  had 
no  alternative  but  to  support  his  policy,  came  to  rec 
ognize  that  he  was  not  the  man  to  lead  their  party,  and 
the  Southern  whites,  while  they  regarded  with  wonder 
their  unexpected  champion,  gradually  lost  the  fond 
hopes  that  his  championship  would  mitigate  their  woes. 
Indeed,  perhaps  it  is  not  too  much  to  say,  that  if  Andrew 
Johnson  had  kept  himself  within  the  doors  of  the  Ex 
ecutive  Mansion  during  this  critical  campaign,  the  re 
sult  of  the  elections  would  have  been  the  beginning  of 
the  triumph  of  his  policy,  General  Grant  would  not 
have  turned  to  the  radicals,  and  he  himself  would  have 
been  elected  President  in  1868.'  And  yet  there  was 
no  small  amount  of  injustice  involved  in  this  fatality. 
In  the  first  place,  as  we  have  already  intimated,  the 
scenes,  so  derogatory  to  the  personal  dignity  of  the 
chief  magistrate  of  the  republic,  were  made  to  appear 
much  grosser  than  they  really  were.  There  was  always 
something  imposing  in  the  mere  presence  of  Johnson 
which  to  some  extent  counter-balanced  the  undue 
familiarity,  the  lapses  from  good  taste  and  decorum 
disfiguring  his  interviews  with  the  populace.  And  his 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     125 

encounters  with  the  multitude  cannot  correctly  be 
called  speeches ;  they  were  essentially  colloquies,  mere 
talks,  conversations  in  undress.  Nevertheless,  they  were 
mercilessly  exposed  in  the  columns  of  a  hostile  press 
with  all  their  deformities  intensified,  as  monstrous 
travesties  of  the  stately,  measured  addresses  of  the 
great  statesmen  of  the  past;  the  strong,  quiet,  resolute 
personality  of  the  speaker  being  transformed  in  the 
imagination  of  the  reader  into  a  loud,  blaring,  wildly- 
gesticulating  figure  of  some  frenzied,  illiterate  dema 
gogue.  Now,  whatever  may  have  been  the  faults  xof 
Johnson  as  a  speaker,  he  was  never  noisy  and  gesticu 
lated  but  seldom.  Even  that  supreme  threat  so  awful 
to  the  office-seeking  population,  that  he  would  1 1  kick  the 
radicals  out, ' '  was  uttered,  doubtless,  in  a  low  voice  with 
no  violent  gesture.  In  the  next  place,  these  unlucky 
utterances,  whatever  else  they  show,  show  the  sincerity 
of  the  man— his  devotion  to  his  cause  and  his  indomi 
table  determination  to  stand  by  it  to  the  last.  There 
seems  to  be  something  mean  in  sniffing  about  the  want 
of  dignity,  the  lack  of  drawing-room  manners,  even  the 
grammar  of  a  leader  in  a  just  cause.  Andrew  Johnson 
at  Cleveland  and  St.  Louis  was  the  same  man  he  was 
in  Tennessee,  where  he  won  in  old  times  many  a  triumph 
by  just  such  colloquies  with  the  crowd;  the  same  man 
he  was  when,  assailed  by  the  Southern  senators  for  his 
faithfulness  to  the  Union,  he  gained  such  universal 
glorification  in  the  North  by  modes  of  retort  essentially 
of  the  same  kind.  If  he  had  swung  round  the  circle  in 
the  company  of  Jack  Hamilton  of  Texas  and  "  Parson " 
Brownlow,  preaching  the  orthodox  radical  doctrine,  his 


126  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

lack  of  dignity  would  have  been  attributed  to  his  ab 
sorption  in  a  great  mission,  his  slips  into  bad  taste  to 
the  refreshing  earnestness  of  a  primitive  nature,  and 
his  want  of  grammar  to  a  quaint  American  mode  of 
speech.  He  might  even  have  dropped  into  drink,  as 
he  was  falsely  accused  of  doing,  and  escaped  censure, 
had  his  availability  as  a  candidate  been  sufficiently  con 
spicuous. 

The  truth  of  this  remark  could  find  no  clearer  illus 
tration  than  in  the  convention  of  the  "loyal  Unionists" 
of  the  South:  — otherwise  called  "The  Jack  Hamilton 
Convention" -which  met  at  Philadelphia  on  the  third 
of  September  in  the  historic  hall  that  witnessed  the 
signing  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  The 
municipal  functionaries,  who  fled  the  approach  of  the 
President  the  week  before,  were  now  on  hand  with 
smiles  of  welcome,  "Parson"  Brownlow  was  the  tiero 
of  the  hour,  and  was  received  by  the  city  with  a  perfect 
ovation.  The  border  states— Missouri,  Kentucky, 
Maryland,  Delaware— together  with  West  Virginia  and 
the  newly  admitted  Tennessee,  were  represented  by 
delegations  comparatively  respectable  and  all  op 
posed  to  negro  suffrage.  In  these  states  the  rebel 
whites,  as  they  were  called,  were  disfranchised,  and 
as  the  men  in  power  did  not  need  the  negro  vote 
to  maintain  their  supremacy,  their  instinctive  antip 
athy  to  the  race  held  full  sway.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  representatives  from  the  excluded  states, 
if  representatives  in  any  sense  they  can  be  called, 
whose  constituents,  outside  of  a  small  number  of 
colored  men  capable  of  understanding  the  crisis,  were 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     127 

really  in  the  North,  composed  a  motley  band  Rene 
gades  from  their  states,  their  section,  and  their  race; 
sojourners  from  the  North;  attaches  of  the  army; 
petty  federal  office-holders  expecting  removal  — miti 
gated  here  and  there  by  a  full-blown  over-earnest 
fanatic  and  a  few  honest  colored  men  kept  in  the  back 
ground—their  very  existence  as  a  party  rested  entirely 
on  the  hope  of  a  grant  of  suffrage  to  the  negro  and  of 
its  withdrawal  from  the  vast  majority  of  the  whites. 
Many  of  the  most  prominent  and  influential  men  of  the 
Republican  party  attended  as  delegates  from  the  North, 
but  they  took  the  singular  course  of  separating  them 
selves  at  the  outset  from  the  Southern  delegates,  so, 
as  they  said,  to  leave  them  "perfectly  free  in  their 
proceedings,"  and  held  a  convention  by  themselves 
The  Southern  wing,  presided  over  by  Speed  and  guided 
by  Hamilton  and  Brownlow,  adopted  a  series  of  resolu 
tions  that  stopped  short  of  negro  suffrage  and  thereby 
necessitated  a  third  convention,  held  after  the  adjourn 
ment  of  the  other  two  by  the  delegates  of  the  excluded 
states,  which  appealed  to  Congress  for  the  only  boon 
that  could  keep  them  politically  alive. 

This  September  month  was  signalized  by  two  more 
conventions.  On  the  seventeenth  there  met  at  Cleve 
land  a  convention  of  soldiers  and  sailors  who  had 
served  in  the  army  and  navy  in  the  late  War  and  were 
in  favor  of  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the  National 
Philadelphia  Convention  of  the  fourteenth  of  August, 
endorsing  the  administration.  The  call  was  signed 
by  a  formidable  array  of  illustrious  names  — forty-eight 
major  generals  and  fifty-six  brigadier  generals,  it  was 


128  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

counted,  officers  of  renown  such  as  Ouster,  McCook, 
Ewing,  Dix,  Steedman,  Blair,  Slocum,  Sickles,  Granger, 
McClernand,  Couch,  Averill,  Franklin,  Crittenden  and 
Patrick.  In  addition  to  these,  the  administration  or 
gans  openly  claimed  that  the  movement  was  approved 
by  Grant,  Sherman  and  Sheridan,  without  eliciting 
a  denial  from  any  of  these  heroes.  Henry  Ward 
Beecher  wrote  a  strong  letter  in  its  favor.  This  con 
vention  of  soldiers  and  sailors  on  the  one  side  provoked 
the  calling  of  a  convention  of  soldiers  and  sailors  on 
the  other  consisting  mainly  of  men  who  had  served 
as  privates  or  non-commissioned  officers,  which  met 
on  the  twenty-sixth.  It  was  to  be  a  demonstration  that 
the  rank  and  file  were  not  represented  in  the  officers' 
convention.  Its  leading  spirit  was  the  man  who  had 
originated  the  movement— Benjamin  F.  Butler.  He 
called  out  the  privates,  marshalled  them  in  caucuses, 
guided  them  in  the  selection  of  representatives,  wel 
comed  them  at  the  place  of  meeting,  wrote,  reported 
and  read  their  resolutions,  and  sent  them  home  with  his 
benediction.  His  present  purpose,  in  which  his  whole 
nature  was  absorbed  for  the  time  being,,  was  the  im 
peachment  and  removal  of  the  President,  and,  accord 
ingly,  the  resolutions  of  his  convention  exhibited  the 
utmost  hostility  to  the  whole  course  of  the  administra 
tion. 

Even  while  these  rival  conventions  were  being  held, 
the  result  of  the  campaign  was  distinctly  foreshadowed 
by  the  elections  in  Vermont  and  Maine ;  and,  in  October, 
Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  Indiana  settled  the  verdict  be 
forehand. 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     129 

Tn  the  interval  between  these  state  elections  and. 
the  presidential,  an  incident  took  place  of  no  great 
importance  in  itself  and  bearing  a  most  innocent  aspect, 
but  subsequently  magnified  into  sinister  proportions. 
On  the  seventeenth  of  October,  the  President  sent  for 
General  Grant  and  told  him  that,  at  the  President 's  own 
suggestion,  in  order  to  give  prestige  to  the  mission  to 
Mexico,  the  Cabinet  had  decided  that  the  General  of  the 
army  should  accompany  the  United  States  minister, 
Lewis  D.  Campbell,  about  to  depart  in  a  war  vessel  to 
the  country  to  which  he  was  accredited.  The  situation 
there  was  a  critical  one.  According  to  an  arrange 
ment  entered  into  by  the  Emperor  of  the  French  with 
the  United  States  in  May,  the  French  troops  were  to 
evacuate  Mexico  in  three  instalments — the  first  in  No 
vember,  1866— leaving  the  Mexicans  themselves  to  de 
cide  between  the  government  of  Maximilian  and  the 
government  of  Juarez.  Our  own  government  naturally 
sympathized  with  the  Juarez  Republic,  to  which  in 
fact  our  minister  was  accredited,  but  it  was  feared 
that  on  the  departure  of  the  French  troops  serious  dis 
turbances  would  break  out,  necessitating  the  utmost 
caution  and  tact  on  the  part  of  the  envoys  of  the  United 
States,  and  rendering  it  highly  desirable  that  our  gov 
ernment  should  assume  as  imposing  an  attitude  as 
possible.  Grant,  though  at  first  (so  at  least  it  seemed 
to  the  President)  evincing  satisfaction  with  the  pro 
posed  arrangement,  a  few  days  afterwards  declined 
peremptorily  to  receive  the  instructions  the  Secretary 
of  State  had  drafted  for  his  guidance,  and  with  great 
urgency  excused  himself  to  the  President  from  accept- 

9 


130  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ing  a  duty  he  claimed  was  "entirely  out  of  his  sphere/' 
"for  which  he  was  not  fitted,"  and  "one,  too,  which 
can  be  much  better  performed  by  others."  When  the 
President  found  that  the  General  was  unalterable  in-  his 
determination,  he  quietly  acquiesced  and  appointed 
General  Sherman  on  that  officer's  own  suggestion.  The 
mission  amounted  to  little  on  account  of  the  fact  that 
the  French  troops,  in  partial  breach  of  the  Emperor's 
promise,  did  not  depart  until  the  spring;  minister 
Campbell  not  being  able  to  find  Juarez  at  all.  On  this 
slight  foundation  was  built  up  the  story  that  the 
President  conspired  with  the  Secretary  of  State  to 
banish  Grant  from  the  country  and  then  to  supersede 
him  by  the  appointment  of  Sherman  in  his  place  or  as 
Secretary  of  War  in  place  of  Stanton.  At  the  date  of 
this  incident,  as  subsequent  events  clearly  showed,  the 
President  had  no  more  reason  to  distrust  Grant  than 
to  distrust  Sherman.* 

Connected  with  this  imaginary  conspiracy  was  the 
affair  of  the  Baltimore  police  commissioners— with 
which  the  President  had  but  little  to  do  and  that  little 
of  the  simplest  and  most  inoffensive  character.  Un- 

*  Diary  of  William  G.  Moore,  private  secretary  of  President  John 
son,  among  the  papers  of  Andrew  Johnson  left  with  his  daughter, 
Martha  Patterson,  recently  deceased;  extracts  concerning  the  Mexico 
mission  printed  in  The  Memphis  Daily  Appeal  of  November  1,  1885. 
Gen.  Grant's  letter  in  McPh.  Recon.,  p.  29G.  (Jen.  Sherman's  Memoirs 
(4th  ed.,  two  vols.  in  one),  Vol.  2,  pp.  414  el  seq.  Sherman  is  "sure 
this  whole  movement  was  got  up  for  the  purpose  of  getting  Grant  away 
from  Washington  .  .  .  because  he  was  looming  up  as  a  candidate  for 
President,  and  nobody  understood  the  animus  and  purpose  better  than 
did  Mr.  Stanton."  Cf.  Mr.  Boutwell's  Article  in  Xorth  Arner.  Rev.  of 
December,  1885. 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     131 

der  the  constitution  of  Maryland,  adopted  in  1864,  dis 
franchising  all  citizens  who  participated  in  the  rebellion, 
the  political  complexion  of  the  registrars  or  inspectors 
at  the  polls  in  the  city  of  Baltimore  had  a  most  decisive 
influence  on  the  result  of  the  election  in  both  city  and 
state— those  officers  having  the  power  to  determine 
what  constituted  participation  in  the  rebellion,  and 
what  evidence  established  such  participation.  The 
police  commissioners,  who  superintended  the  elections 
and  possessed  the  power  of  selecting  the  election  officers 
and  binding  them  by  instructions— at  this  period  strong 
radicals— issued  instructions  to  the  election  officers  on 
the  interpretation  to  be  put  on  the  prescriptive  clauses 
of  the  constitution ;  and  certain  citizens  preferred 
charges  against  them  of  misconduct  in  office,  for  which 
the  law  provided  they  could  be  removed  by  the  legisla 
ture,  or  by  the  governor  when  the  legislature  was  not 
in  session.  Governor  Swann  (the  legislature  not  being 
in  session)  heard  the  defendants  on  the  point  of  his 
want  of  power  to  act  in  this  case  (the  only  point  they 
consented  to  present),  and  shortly  before  the  election 
decreed  their  removal  and  appointed  their  successors. 
The  incumbents  refusing  to  surrender  and  the  newly 
appointed  officers  calling  upon  the  sheriff  to  put  them 
in  possession,  these  latter  were  arrested  on  the  charge 
of  conspiracy  in  pursuance  of  a  warrant  of  a  United 
States  judge.  On  the  first  of  November  the  President 
directed  the  Secretary  of  War  to  take  measures  for  the 
protection  of  the  capital  and  to  call  General  Grant's 
attention  to  the  state  of  affairs  in  Baltimore.  Recruits 
under  way  from  New  York  to  Texas  were  detained  at 


7<V 


132  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Fort  McHenry;  and  this  is  all  that  appears  to  have 
been  done  in  the  premises.  The  election  passed  off 
quietly  under  the  auspices  of  the  radical  inspectors. 
The  action  of  Governor  Swann  was  afterwards  sus 
tained  by  the  courts  and  the  militant  commissioners 
were  ejected  without  trouble.  This  small  tempest,  also, 
was  subsequently  magnified  into  an  attempt  of  the 
President  to  usurp  control  of  the  capital  in  the  absence 
of  the  General  of  the  army.* 

At  the  November  elections  the  regular  Republicans 
carried  every  Northern  state  by  largely  increased 
majorities  over  the  year  before.  The  majority  in  the 
House  of  Representatives,  however,  remained  nearly 
the  same — the  Republicans  numbering  one  hundred 
and  forty- three  to  the  Democrats  forty-nine  in  a  House 
of  one  hundred  and  ninety-two  members.  The  result  in 
the  Southern  states  wore  a  different  aspect.  Those 
border  states  in  which  the  whites  were  not  disfranchised 
-Delaware  and  Kentucky— were  Democratic  by  large 
majorities,  while  the  result  in  Maryland  clearly  fore 
shadowed  what  must  happen  in  West  Virginia  and  Mis 
souri—states  like  Maryland  where  the  so-called  rebels 
were  not  allowed  to  vote— as  soon  as  the  normal  condi 
tion  of  the  constituencies  was  restored.  In  those  of  the 
still  excluded  Southern  states  where  elections  were  held 
at  all— North  Carolina,  Arkansas  and  Texas— the  ma 
jorities  for  the  President's  policy  were  overwhelming. 

*  Col.  Moore's  Diary,  extract  in  Memphis  Appeal  as  in  last  note. 
McPh.  Recon.,  p.  297.  See  letter  of  Grant  to  H.  R.  on  removal  of 
Stanton,  pub.  as  Ex.  Doc.,  No.  57,  40th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  at  p.  63  et  scq. 
Grant's  Testimony,  Imp.  Inv.,  p.  838  et  seq. 


THE  APPEAL  TO  THE  COUNTRY     133 

And  this  was  the  very  quarter  of  the  political  horizon 
where  the  Republican  pilots  descried  portents  of  peril. 
No  matter  how  thorough  the  victory  in  the  North,  an 
irrepressible  and  most  formidable  minority  would  still 
remain.  Once  allow  the  incorrigible  white  men  of  the 
South  to  swing  their  states  at  one  and  the  same  instant 
into  the  Union  and  into  the  Democratic  party,  and  the 
defeat  of  a  political  organization  having  no  substantial 
following  in  the  South  could  not  be  far  off. 


THE  IMPEACHMENT  AND  TRIAL 


OF 


PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 


CHAPTER  I 

PREPARATIONS   FOR   IMPEACHMENT 

THE  Congressional  majority  came  back  to  their  seats 
for  the  short  session  flushed  with  triumph  and  bent  on 
vengeance.  They  meant  to  strip  the  President  of  the 
prerogatives  and  functions  of  his  office,  as  far  as  they 
could  do  so  by  statute,  and,  if  he  struggled  against  the 
process  of  emasculation,  as  they  had  every  reason  to 
believe  he  would,  to  impeach  and  remove  him  out  of 
the  way.  No  other  department  of  the  government 
should  be  suffered  to  interfere  with  the  execution  of 
the  plan  of  reconstructing  the  South  with  the  negro 
on  top  and  the  white  man  on  the  bottom,  which  the 
legislative  had  at  length  determined  to  adopt.  Should 
the  judicial  stand  in  the  way,  as  it  seemed  it  might  do 
from  the  decisions  just  handed  down  by  the  Supreme 
Court  in  the  Milligan,  Cummings  and  Garland  cases, 
then  so  much  the  worse  for  the  judicial  department. 
They  would  block  up  the  path  to  its  sanctuary  by 
denying  to  all  parties  aggrieved  the  right  of  appeal. 

(135) 


136  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

They  would  minimize,  if  not  altogether  destroy,  its 
tutelary  function  over  the  Constitution  by  exacting  a 
two-third  vote  or  even  unanimity  of  the  judges  in  every 
decision  involving  the  validity  of  an  act  of  Congress.* 
Should  the  President,  disregarding  the  recent  popular 
rebuke,  persist  in  his  obstructive  course,  they  would 
admit  the  territories  of  Colorado  and  Nebraska,  add 
four  judges  to  the  High  Court  of  Impeachment,  and 
proceed  to  his  official  decapitation. 

The  first  bill  passed  by  the  House  on  the  first  day  of 
the  session  repealed  a  section  of  the  act  of  1862  which 
authorized  the  President  to  proclaim  amnesty  to  per 
sons  who  had  participated  in  the  rebellion;  with  the 
avowed  object  of  trenching  upon  the  prerogative  of 
pardon  and  the  unavowed  intent  of  depriving  the  Presi 
dent  of  a  plausible  answer  to  one  of  the  grounds  of 
impeachment ;  his  abuse  of  the  pardoning  power.  The 
bill  became  a  law  without  the  signature  of  the  President, 
who  entirely  ignored  it  when  he  issued  his  proclamation 
of  universal  amnesty.  Indeed,  Andrew  Johnson's  ex 
traordinary  clemency,  in  view  of  his  threatenings  at 
the  time  of  his  accession;  his  failure  to  make  treason 
odious,  as  he  promised  so  often  to  do,  by  the  punish 
ment  of  even  a  single  traitor;  had  caused  a  growing 
dissatisfaction  among  the  more  bloodthirsty  radicals 
for  a  year  past,  filling  their  minds  with  all  sorts  of 
sinister  suspicions;  and  was  now  at  last  denounced  as 
a  crime.  There  was  Jefferson  Davis,  captured  as  far 

*  For  exacting  unanimity,  see  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  616. 
Debate,  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  478  et  seq.  Bill  requiring  two- 
thirds  passed  House,  p.  489. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        137 

back  as  May  eleventh,  18G5,  and  imprisoned  in  Fort 
Monroe.  He  was  under  indictment  for  treason.  Why 
was  he  not  tried?  He  was  charged  with  complicity 
in  the  assassination  of  Lincoln,  and  $100,000  reward 
had  been  offered  and  paid  for  his  capture  on  that  charge. 
The  military  commission  that  condemned  the  accused 
assassins  actually  before  it,  found  him  guilty  as  a  co- 
conspirator,  in  his  absence.  Why  was  he  not  hung? 
As  to  the  indictment,  the  real  causes  of  delay  were  the 
refusal  of  the  Chief  Justice  to  hold  court  in  Virginia 
while  the  military  held  even  partial  control  of  the 
state,  mistrust  of  a  Virginia  jury,  and  the  desire  to 
avoid  the  opening  of  embarrassing  constitutional  ques 
tions  which  the  defendant's  counsel  were  sure  to  raise 
on  the  trial.  The  President  was  in  no  way  responsible 
for  the  tardiness  of  the  prosecution ;  on  the  contrary, 
he,  probably,  was  the  only  member  of  the  administra 
tion  having  no  misgivings  as  to  its  success.  As  to  the 
charge  of  complicity,  the  real  cause  of  delay  in  pressing 
it  was  that  the  testimony  on  which  it  was  based— taken 
in  secret  before  the  military  commission — in  its  subject- 
matter  was  of  the  most  flimsy  and  inconclusive  char 
acter,  was  incompetent  under  the  most  elementary  rules 
of  evidence  and  came  from  the  mouths  of  professional 
witnesses  testifying  under  pay.*  But  these  reasons 
were  unknown  or  unsatisfactory  to  those  radicals  who 
were  careless  how  or  on  what  charge  Davis  was  tried 
or  by  what  testimony  he  was  proved  guilty,  so  long  as 
he  was  convicted;  and  chief  among  these  was  George 

•Testimony  in  Imp.  Tnv.,  Seward,  pp.  379,  380,  381;  Stanton,  397; 
Speed,  798-802. 


138  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

S.  Boutwell  of  Massachusetts.  At  the  last  session 
(April  9,  1866)  he  it  was  who  offered  (and  the  House 
adopted)  a  resolution  instructing  the  judiciary  com 
mittee  of  which  he  was  a  member,  to  inquire  whether 
there  was  probable  cause  to  believe  in  the  guilt  of  the 
persons  charged  in  the  proclamation  with  inciting  the 
murder  of  Lincoln  and  the  attempted  assassination  of 
Seward ;  and,  during  the  remainder  of  the  session,  from 
time  to  time  he,  with  one  or  two  kindred  spirits  on  the 
committee,  employed  himself  in  examining  the  captured 
rebel  archives  and  the  records  of  the  Bureau  of  Mili 
tary  Justice  and  in  listening  to  the  stories  of  the  pro 
fessional  witnesses  of  the  military  commission  and 
others  of  the  like  kidney,  in  the  hope  to  connect  the 
distinguished  prisoner  of  war  by  some  semblance  of  a 
link  with  the  murder  of  his  great  antagonist.  Joseph 
Holt— the  Judge- Advocate-General  of  the  army— the 
employer  and  patron  of  Sanford  Conover,  that  head- 
centre  of  professional  witnesses— was  his  main  reliance 
in  this  work.  He  furnished  the  committee,  first,  with 
the  copy  of  his  spy's,  testimony  given  before  the  mili 
tary  commission,  and,  second,  the  depositions  of  seven 
persons  brought  by  Conover  to  Holt's  office  in  the  fall 
of  1865  and  sworn  to  statements  involving  the  com 
plicity  of  Davis,  Thompson,  Clay  and  others  in  the 
assassination;  among  the  rest  two  men  calling  them 
selves  Campbell  and  Snevel  who  testified  that  they  were 
present,  with  John  H.  Surratt,  at  an  interview  with 
Davis  and  Benjamin,  in  the  early  spring  of  1865,  at 
Richmond,  when  the  plot  to  assassinate  Lincoln  was 
discussed  and  approved.  The  committee  despatched  an 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        139 

officer  to  New  York  to  find  Conover  and  his  affiants,  who 
succeeded  in  seeing  Conover,  Campbell  and  Snevel  and 
in  bringing  Campbell  back  with  him.  He  reported  to 
the  committee  that  Campbell  confessed  to  him  that  his 
deposition  was  fabricated  by  Conover,  and  the  com 
mittee  thereupon  telegraphed  for  Conover  to  come  to 
Washington.  Conover  suspecting  nothing  came;  and 
on  the  eighth  day  of  May,  1866,  the  master  and  his  tool 
were  confronted  with  each  other  in  the  rooms  of  the 
committee.  Campbell  was  sworn  and  testified  that  his 
deposition  was  false  in  every  particular;  that  his  real 
name  was  Joseph  A.  Hoare;  that  the  deposition  was 
written  out  for  him  by  Conover  and  he  committed  it  to 
memory;  and  that  the  other  deponents  had  given  false 
names  and  were  likewise  the  creatures  of  Conover.  In 
his  turn,  Conover  swore  that  Campbell's  present  testi 
mony  was  false  and  that  he  himself  had  no  reason  to 
doubt  the  truth  of  the  depositions.  He  was  allowed  to 
go  to  New  York  with  the  sergeant-at-arms  to  find  the 
other  witnesses,  but  on  his  arrival  in  that  city  he  es 
caped  from  the  custody  of  the  officer  and  vanished. 
Snevel  was  found  and,  appearing  before  the  committee 
(May  24),  testified  that  his  real  name  was  Roberts  and 
that,  like  Campbell's,  his  deposition  also  was  fabricated 
by  Conover.  These  self-confessed  scoundrels  were 
both  paid  by  the  Bureau  of  Military  Justice— Campbell 
receiving  $625,  and  Snevel  $475. 

Even  such  astounding  revelations  as  these  failed  to 
convince  Mr.  Boutwell  of  the  hopelessness  of  his  quest; 
and,  a  rumour  circulating  about  this  time  that  Jefferson 
Davis  was  to  be  admitted  to  bail,  he  hurried  a  resolution 


140  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

through  the  House  (June  11)  to  the  effect  that  Davis, 
being  notoriously  guilty  of  treason  and  also  charged 
with  complicity  in  the  assassination  of  Abraham  Lin 
coln,  should  be  held  in  custody  until  tried ;  and,  in  con 
sequence,  Davis  was  still  kept  in  prison.  On  the  eight 
eenth  of  June,  Holt  reappeared  before  the  committee 
affecting  great  astonishment  at  the  break-down  of  his 
witnesses.  He  gave  a  full  account  of  his  intercourse 
with  Conover  and  protested  his  implicit  trust  in  the 
latter 's  statements.  He  remarked  of  the  witnesses  that 
he  "  conferred  freely  with  them  before  and  while  ex 
amining  them;  that  they  appeared  to  possess  ordinary 
intelligence  and  certainly  assumed  perfect  self-posses 
sion  and  frankness  of  manner  and  seemed  to  be,  so  far 
as  I  could  judge,  under  no  improper  influence;  and 
there  was  nothing  either  in  the  testimony  they  gave 
...  or  in  their  manner  while  deposing  calculated  in 
any  degree  to  excite  doubt  as  to  their  truthfulness." 
Nevertheless,  the  Judge- Advocate  condescended  to  con 
fess  that  the  retractions  of  Campbell  and  Snevel,  fol 
lowed  by  Conover 's  escape,  disappearance  and  subse 
quent  non-communication  with  Holt  himself,  "left  on 
my  (Holt's)  mind  a  strong  impression  that  Conover 
had  been  guilty  of  a  most  atrocious  crime,  committed 
under  what  promptings  I  am  wholly  unable  to  deter 
mine."  At  this  stage  of  the  proceedings,  the  com 
mittee,  having  accumulated  a  voluminous  mass  of  docu 
ments  on  which  after  all  it  could  come  to  no  conclusion, 
turned  all  the  papers  over  to  Mr.  Bout  well  for  him  to 
prepare  a  report,  which,  on  the  last  day  but  one  of  the 
session,  he  presented  to  the  House,  together  with  two 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        141 

resolutions  which  were  adopted;  the  first  declaring 
that  there  was  "no  defect  or  insufficiency  in  the  law  to 
prevent  or  interfere  with  the  trial  of  Jefferson  Davis 
for  the  crime  of  treason  or  any  other  crime ' ' ;  the  sec 
ond,  "that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  executive  department 
of  the  Government  to  proceed  with  the  investigation 
of  the  facts  connected  with  the  assassination  of  the  late 
President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  without  unnecessary  de 
lay,  that  Jefferson  Davis  and  others  named  in  the 
proclamation  of  President  Johnson  of  May  2,  1865, 
may  be  put  upon  trial  and  properly  punished,  if  guilty, 
or  relieved  from  the  charges  against  them  if  found  to 
be  innocent." 

The  evidence  chiefly  relied  on  by  the  report  to  sus 
tain  the  charge  of  complicity  with  Booth  consisted  of 
certain  wild  projects  to  blow  up  the  capitol  at  Wash 
ington  and  to  dispose  of  leading  officers  of  the  United 
States,  sent  at  various  times  to  the  President  of  the 
Confederacy  and  referred  by  him  in  the  usual  course 
of  business  to  the  appropriate  department;  together 
with  testimony  of  inhumanity  to  prisoners  and  of  ex 
peditions  sent  against  the  North  of  a  character  forbid 
den  by  the  laws  of  war ;  this  evidence,  wholly  irrelevant 
on  its  face,  being  adduced,  as  the  report  states,  to  "bar 
the  plea,  which  otherwise,  perhaps,  might  with  force 
and  reason  be  tendered,  that  Davis  and  his  associates 
named  were  incapable  of  the  great  crime  of  assassina 
tion."  The  depositions,  furnishing  as  they  did  the 
only  direct  evidence  of  the  crime  under  investigation 
yet  so  fatally  discredited,  Mr.  Boutwell  still  clung  to 
with  desperate  clutch.  Speaking  of  the  two  villains 


142  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

who  swore  before  the  committee  that  their  depositions 
were  fabricated,  he  writes:  "They  failed,  however,  to 
state  to  the  committee  any  inducement  or  consideration 
which  seemed  a  reasonable  explanation  for  the  course 
they  had  pursued.  And  the  committee  are  not  at  this 
time  able  to  say  .  .  .  whether  the  original  statements 
of  these  witnesses  are  true  or  false. "  The  report  was 
printed,  as  well  as  one  by  the  minority  of  the  com-, 
mittee  (A.  J.  Rogers)  ;  and  the  publicity  thus  given  to 
the  investigation,  besides  calling  out  Judge  Holt  in  a 
11  Vindication  "  with  exculpatory  letters  from  Mr.  Bout- 
well  and  Stanton,  had  one  beneficial  result.  On  an 
affidavit  of  Hoare,  alias  Campbell,  a  warrant  was  issued 
for  Conover,  and  in  November,  he  was  arrested  and 
brought  to  Washington,  confessing  on  the  way  to  the 
officer  that  he  had  suborned  the  witnesses  produced 
before  the  bureau  and  the  committee,  actuated  solely 
by  "  a  desire  to  avenge  himself  on  Jeff.  Davis  by  whose 
order  he  had  been  confined  in  Castle  Thunder "  and 
who  had  "also  insulted  his  wife."  In  the  following 
February  (1867),  he  was  tried  for  perjury  committed 
in  his  testimony  contradicting  Campbell,  was  convicted 
and,  in  April,  sentenced  to  imprisonment  in  the  Albany 
Penitentiary  for  ten  years.  For  the  present  we  leave 
him  in  the  jail  of  the  District  of  Columbia  awaiting 
transportation  to  that  institution.* 

Still,  though  the  committee  could  come  to  no  conclu 
sion  on  the  complicity  of  Davis,  Mr.  Boutwell  found 

*  Boutwell's  and  Roger's  Reports  (No.  104,  39th  Cong.,  1st  Sess.), 
Imp.  Inv.,  Greeley's  testimony,  p.  779.  Holt's  "  Vindication  "  in  public 
prints. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        143 

enough  to  feed  a  suspicion  of  the  complicity  of  Johnson. 
Among  the  discoveries  he  made  was  the  unaccountable 
neglect  of  the  proper  authorities  to  procure  the  arrest 
and  extradition  of  John  H.  Surratt,  the  son  of  the 
woman  who  was  condemned  to  death  by  the  military 
commission  that  tried  the  alleged  assassins  of  Lincoln. 
The  young  man  was  an  associate  of  Booth's,  and  it  was 
the  still  prevalent  belief  that  he  was  present  in  Wash 
ington  on  the  night  of  the  tragedy,  had  taken  some 
active  though  as  yet  unidentified  part  in  the  conspiracy 
and  had  escaped  in  the  early  morning  by  a  train  mov 
ing  North.  Detectives  sent  on  the  instant  tracked 
him  through  St.  Albans  in  Vermont  to  Canada,  where 
they  lost  trace.  Nothing  was  heard  from  the  fugitive 
until  the  October  following  (1865)  when  tidings  came 
from  the  American  consul  at  Liverpool  that  Surratt, 
having  crossed  the  ocean  in  a  steamer  from  Quebec,  was 
at  that  moment  in  Liverpool ;— tidings  shortly  after  cor 
roborated  by  the  American  consul  in  Canada.  From 
both  these  quarters  came  the  written  statement  of  the 
man  who  had  betrayed  the  fugitive  that  Surratt  had 
confessed  to  him  that  he  was  implicated  in  the  assassin 
ation.  The  only  notice  taken  by  the  administration  of 
these  communications  was  (October  13)  to  notify  the 
consul  at  Liverpool  that  upon  consultation  with  the 
Secretary  of  War  and  Judge- Advocate-General  it  was 
thought  advisable  that  no  action  be  taken  in  regard  to 
the  arrest;  to  request  the  Attorney-General  (November 
13)  to  procure  an  indictment  against  Surratt  with  a 
view  to  his  surrender;  and  the  issuance  of  an  order 
from  the  War  Department  (November  24)  revoking  the 


144  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

reward  of  $50,000  offered  (April  20,  1865)  for  his 
arrest.  Meanwhile,  Surratt  traveled  unmolested  from 
Liverpool  to  London,  and  from  London  to  Paris,  and 
from  Paris  to  Borne,  reaching  this  last  city  some  time 
in  November ;  and,  although  the  Secretary  of  State  was 
informed  by  the  authorities  that  announced  his  pres 
ence  in  Liverpool  that  it  was  to  Rome  he  was  bound, 
no  notice  was  sent  to  our  minister  there  to  look  out  for 
him.  It  was  not  until  the  latter  part  of  the  following: 
April  (1866)  that  the  apparent  apathy  of  the  heads  of 
the  administration  on  this  delicate  matter  was  disturbed 
by  another  communication  from  abroad.  An  old  ac 
quaintance  of  Surratt 's  betrayed  the  latter 's  presence 
as  a  soldier  in  the  Papal  Zouaves  at  a  place  about  fifty 
miles  from  Rome,  to  Rufus  King,  the  American  min 
ister  at  the  capital;  accompanying  the  information,  in 
this  instance  also,  with  the  statement  that  the  confiding 
murderer  had  acknowledged  his  own  guilt,  and,  going 
still  further  this  time,  had  declared  the  guilt  of  his  own 
mother  and  the  complicity  of  Jefferson  Davis.  King 
made  haste  to  send  this  startling  news  to  the  State  De 
partment  at  "Washington ;  and,  here  again,  appeared  the 
same  indifference — the  only  result  being  the  expression 
of  an  ardent  desire  on  the  part  of  Judge- Advocate  Holt 
to  secure  from  King's  informant  a  full,  verified  state 
ment  of  the  particulars  of  Surratt 's  confession.  This 
was  at  last  obtained,  but,  although  the  man  was  very 
anxious  to  return  home  and  affected  to  be  in  fear  of 
his  life  because  of  his  revelations,  the  verified  statement 
turned  out  to  be  vague  and  indefinite  at  the  most  critical 
points. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        145 

Such  was  the  situation  of  affairs  at  the  end  of  the 
session.  Mr.  Boutwell  went  home  to  Massachusetts 
troubled  with  dark  surmisings— perplexed,  however, 
that  the  evidence,  in  so  far  as  it  made  against  the  Presi 
dent,  should  implicate  the  victim  of  Payne  and  the 
masterful  Secretary  of  War.  He  kept  a  watchful  eye 
on  the  mystery;  and,  before  the  beginning  of  the  next 
session,  his  vigilance  was  rewarded.  Cardinal  An- 
tonelli,  the  prime  minister  of  the  Pope,  signified  to  min 
ister  King  on  the  seventh  of  August,  that,  on  a  request 
from  the  United  States  in  so  extraordinary  a  case,  he  had 
no  doubt  Surratt  would  be  delivered  up ;  and  this  intima 
tion  was  instantly  despatched  to  Seward.  Yet  nothing 
was  done— Seward  was  away  "swinging  round  the 
circle ' '  with  the  President  and,  on  the  return  of  the  dis 
comfited  train,  fell  ill.  The  sole  advantage  taken  of  the 
cardinal's  friendly  overture  was  to  send  a  photograph 
of  Surratt  to  Italy,  which,  as  Mr.  Boutwell  discovered, 
was  one  taken  years  before  and,  so  far  from  leading 
to'  identification,  more  likely  to  contribute  to  the  dis 
charge  of  the  accused.  Finally,  just  before  the  meet 
ing  of  Congress,  the  news  came  that  the  Papal  gov 
ernment,  in  its  zeal  to  oblige  the  United  States  not  even 
waiting  for  the  long-delayed  request,  had  ordered  the 
arrest  of  Surratt  (November  8) ;  then,  that  Surratt 
had  broken  from  his  captors,  plunged  down  a  precipit 
ous  declivity,  effected  his  escape  into  the  territory  of 
Naples  and  thence  taken  ship  to  Alexandria  by  way  of 
Malta. 

Such  culpable  negligence  on  the  part  of  the  executive, 
followed  by  so  unlucky  a  slip  in  the  diligent  efforts  of 
10 


146  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

others  upon  whom  no  such  imperious  obligation  rested, 
filled  the  cup  of  Mr.  Boutwell's  indignation  to  the 
brim ;  at  the  Saturday-night  caucus  preceding  the  open 
ing  of  the  second  session,  he  gave  vent  to  his  suspicions ; 
and,  on  the  Monday  following,  submitted  a  resolution 
to  the  House  calling  for  the  correspondence,  which  was 
adopted.  News  arriving  at  the  War  Department  (Sun 
day  night)  that  Surratt  had  been  caught  after  all  at 
Alexandria  and  would  be  forwarded  to  the  United 
States  in  a  government  vessel,  the  President  was  able 
to  send  to  the  House  the  news  of  the  capture  of  the 
fugitive.  On  the  twenty-first  of  December,  Surratt 
was  lodged  on  board  the  "Swatara, "  well-loaded  with 
irons.  The  vessel  bore  her  burden  across  the  ocean 
and  in  February  the  administration  had  a  white 
elephant  on  its  hands.  Mr.  Boutwell,  apparently  not 
at  all  disconcerted,  pursued  his  investigations:  sum 
moned  the  Secretary  of  State,  the  Secretary  of  War 
and  the  Judge- Advocate-General  before  the  judiciary 
committee,  and,  in  the  last  hours  of  the  session,  made 
a  report  corning  to  the  rather  feeble  conclusion:  That 
the  testimony  of  these  distinguished  officials  did  not 
"  excuse  the  great  delay  in  even  attempting  to  arrest 
a  person  charged  with  complicity  in  the  assassination 
of  the  late  President;  and,  while  the  Committee  do  not 
charge  improper  motives  upon  the  officers  of  the  govern 
ment,  they  are  constrained  to  report  that,  in  their  opin 
ion,  due  diligence  in  the  arrest  of  Surratt  was  not  exer 
cised  by  the  executive  department  of  the  government."* 

*  Boutwell's  Report  with  testimony  and  correspondence,  Cong.  Docs. 
Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  5,  12,  1753-4. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        147 

The  object  of  this  investigation  lies  on  the  surface. 
Obviously,  the  movement  could  not  have  been  directed 
against  either  Seward  or  Stanton.^  Andrew  Johnson 
was  the  man  aimed  at,  and  the  inference  that  it  was 
designed  should  be  drawn  from  the  negligence  of  the 
executive  department  was,  that  Johnson  not  only  did 
not  desire  but  actually  feared  the  arrest  of  Surratt; 
because  in  some  mysterious  way  Surratt  was  an  accom 
plice  of  Johnson  as  well  as  of  Booth.  Such  a  suspicion 
seems  too  monstrous  for  any  sane  man  to  entertain. 
The  military  commission  found  as  a  fact  that  Vice- 
President  Johnson  was  an  intended  victim  of  the  wide- 
branched  plot,  and  condemned  a  poor  wretch  for  lying 
in  wait  to  murder  him.^/  Nevertheless,  General  Butler 
convinced  himself,  or  allowed  others  to  believe  that  he 
was  convinced,  that  Johnson  was  privy  to  the  assassina 
tion  of  Lincoln.  Ashley,  at  this  very  time,  openly  pro 
claimed  his  belief  in  the  truth  of  the  incredible  accusa 
tion.  And  Mr.  Boutwell,  brooding  over  trunks-full  of 
rebel  archives,  wild  stories  of  double  spies,  cipher  corre 
spondences,  traitors'  pardons,  revocations  of  rewards, 
winkings  at  escapes,  Jefferson  Davis 's  long  impunity, 
even  if  he  did  not  entertain  the  suspicion  himself,  fur 
nished  the  material  which  clothed  the  shapeless  spectre 
in  flesh  and  blood.  And  the  curious  part  of  the  matter 
is  that  in  the  first  steps  he  took  he  was  on  the  right 
track.  The  truth  was  that  the  President  was  not 
anxious  for  Surratt 's  apprehension;  not  anxious  for 
the  same  intelligible  reason  that  Seward  and  Stanton 
were  not— Stanton  least  of  all.  The  days  of  military 
commissions  were  over,  at  least  in  the  capital ;  and,  with 


148  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  evidence  that  sufficed  to  condemn  the  mother  before 
such  a  tribunal,  they  shrank  from  facing  a  jury  on  the 
trial  of  the  son. 

The  foregoing  recital  derives  its  historical  interest 
only  from  the  fact  that  the  investigation  was  designed 
as  a  make-weight  to  the  projected  impeachment.  In 
deed,  it  is  manifest  that  the  early  proceedings  of  both 
Houses  were  regulated  and  marshalled  with  an  eye  to 
this  ultimate  remedy.  The  annual  message  showed 
no  sign  of  yielding  to  what  the  majority  thought  the 
logic  of  events  nor  the  slightest  indication  that  the 
President,  however  much  disappointed,  felt  the  result  of 
the  elections  as  a  condemnation  of  his  policy  or  a  per 
sonal  rebuke.  He  wrote : 

"If  the  admission  of  loyal  members  to  seats  in  the  re 
spective  Houses  of  Congress  was  wise  and  expedient  a  year 
ago,  it  is  no  less  wise  and  expedient  now.  If  this  anomalous 
condition  is  right  now — if,  in  the  exact  condition  of  these 
States  at  the  present  time,  it  is  lawful  to  exclude  them  from 
representation,  I  do  not  see  that  the  question  will  be 
changed  by  the  efflux  of  time.  Ten  years  hence,  if  these 
States  remain  as  they  are,  the  right  of  representation  will 
be  no  stronger,  the  right  of  exclusion  will  be  no  weaker.  .  .  . 

"I  know  of  no  measure  more  imperatively  demanded  by 
every  consideration  of  national  interest,  sound  policy  and 
equal  justice,  than  the  admission  of  loyal  members  from 
the  now  unrepresented  States.  This  would  consummate  the 
work  of  restoration,  and  exert  a  most  salutary  influence  in 
the  re-establishment  of  peace,  harmony  and  fraternal 
feeling.  ...  "* 

*  Message  in  McPherson,  p.  143. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        149 

These  words,  although  they  may  be  considered  words 
of  wisdom  at  the  present  day,  fell  upon  deaf  ears ;  serv 
ing  only  to  sharpen  the  animosity  felt  by  the  leaders 
of  the  Congress  against  the  President  and  to  strengthen 
their  determination  to  get  rid  of  him.  Probably,  a 
majority  of  the  Republican  members  of  the  House  at 
this  date  were  in  favor  of  his  impeachment.  They 
thought  the  cup  of  his  offences  already  full  and  run 
ning  over.  The  bill  fixing  the  meeting  of  every  Con 
gress  immediately  at  the  close  of  the  preceding  one, 
passed  by  the  House  as  early  as  the  tenth  of  December 
and  by  the  Senate  a  month  later,  shows  that  it  was 
thought  necessary  to  have  the  impeaching  body  always 
on  the  watch.  Schenck  of  Ohio  advocated  its  passage 
on  the  ground  that  had  it  been  the  law  on  the  fourth 
day  of  March,  1865,  there  would  have  been  no  difficulty 
over  reconstruction;  the  South  would  have  accepted 
gladly  any  terms  Congress  might  have  offered  them; 
adding :  ' '  Nay,  if  one  were  permitted  to  speculate  upon 
the  possibilities  of  the  past,  it  is  not  at  all  certain  but 
the  then  Vice  President,  .  .  .  considering  the  exhibi 
tion  made  by  him  on  the  fourth  of  March,  would  have 
been  so  dealt  with  by  Congress,  after  its  assembling, 
that  we  would  not  have  been  troubled  with  any  consid 
eration  of  the  questions  now  before  us. " 

The  veto  of  the  bill  granting  manhood  suffrage  to  the 
negroes  of  the  District  of  Columbia  added  fuel  to 
the  flame.  This  measure— regarded  by  the  radicals  as 
the  forerunner  of  the  establishment  of  negro  suffrage 
throughout  the  country— passed  the  House  at  the  last 

*  Globe,  39th  Cong.,  2d  Sess.,  p.  31. 


150  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

session,  but  "went  over"  in  the  Senate  in  view  of  the 
coming  election,  as  Wilson  confessed  "by  the  assent 
of  its  most  earnest  friends  in  the  full  conviction  that 
.  .  .  the  growth  of  public  sentiment  .  .  .  would  enable 
us  to  carry  a  clean  bill  early  in  this  session."  It  was 
now  revived  and  passed  both  Houses  before  the  holi 
day  recess.  Stunner,  in  closing  the  debate  in  the 
Senate,  said: 

"If  it  were  regarded  simply  in  its  bearings  on  the  Dis 
trict  it  would  be  difficult  to  exaggerate  its  value ;  but  when 
it  is  regarded  as  an  example  to  the  whole  country  under 
the  sanction  of  Congress  its  value  is  infinite.  It  is  in  the 
latter  character  that  it  becomes  a  pillar  of  fire  to 
illumine  the  footsteps  of  millions.  Now,  to  my  mind  noth 
ing  is  clearer  than  the  absolute  necessity  of  the  suffrage 
for  all  colored  persons  in  the  disorganized  States.  It  will 
not  be  enough  if  you  give  it  to  those  who  read  and  write : 
you  will  not  in  this  way  acquire  the  voting  force  which 
you  need  there  for  the  protection  of  Unionists,  whether 
white  or  black.  You  will  not  secure  the  new  allies  which 
are  essential  to  the  national  cause.  As  you  once  needed 
the  muskets  of  the  colored  men,  so  now  you  need  their 
votes;  and  you  must  act  now  with  little  reference  to 
theory.  You  are  bound  by  the  necessity  of  the  case."* 

To  veto  such  a  measure  was  regarded  by  the  ad 
vocates  of  negro  suffrage  as  hardly  less  than  an  act 
of  sacrilege ;  and  one  or  two  statements  in  the  message 
were  not  calculated  to  soothe  their  resentment. 

"It  may  also  be  urged,"  the  President  significantly  wrote, 
' '  that  the  dominant  party  in  each  House  may,  by  the  expul- 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  107. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        151 

sion  of  a  sufficient  number  of  members,  or  by  exclusion  from 
representation  of  a  requisite  number  of  States,  reduce  the 
minority  to  less  than  one-third.  Congress,  by  these  means, 
might  be  enabled  to  pass  a  law,  the  objections  of  the  Presi 
dent  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding,  which  would  render 
impotent  the  other  two  departments  of  the  Government, 
and  make  inoperative  the  wholesome  and  restraining  power 
which  it  was  intended  by  the  framers  of  the  Constitution 
should  be  exerted  by  them.  This  would  be  a  practical  con 
centration  of  all  power  in  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States—  this,  in  the  language  of  the  author  of  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence,  would  be  precisely  the  definition  of 
despotic  Government." 

The  closing  paragraph  follows: 

"After  full  deliberation  upon  this  measure,  I  cannot 
bring  myself  to  approve  it,  even  upon  local  considerations, 
nor  yet  as  the  beginning  of  an  experiment  qn  a  higher 
scale.  I  yield  to  no  one  in  attachment  to  that  rule  of 
general  suffrage  which  distinguishes  our  policy  as  a  nation. 
But  there  is  a  limit,  wisely  observed  hitherto,  which  makes 
the  ballot  a  privilege  and  a  trust,  and  which  requires  of 
some  classes  a  time  suitable  for  probation  and  preparation. 
To  give  it  indiscriminately  to  a  newT  class,  wholly  unpre 
pared  by  previous  habits  and  opportunities  to  perform  the 
trust  which  it  demands,  is  to  degrade  it  and  finally  destroy 
its  power;  for  it  may  be  safely  assumed  that  no  political 
truth  is  better  established  than  that  such  indiscriminate 
and  all-embracing  extension  of  popular  suffrage  must  end 
at  last  in  its  destruction."* 

^v 

*  Message  in  McPherson,  pp.  154,  158-9. 


' 


152  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

The  Senate  listened,  at  least,  to  the  reading  of  the 
message,  and,  after  a  short  debate  in  tone  respectful 
to  the  President,  passed  the  bill  over  the  veto.  The 
House,  for  its  part,  did  not  wait  to  hear  it;  it  was 
enough  that  they  knew  it  was  coming.  Indeed,  every 
veto  was  regarded  by  the  majority  of  the  House  as  a 
defiant  insult  flung  in  their  faces ;  as  an  act  of  the 
rankest  usurpation ;  and  many  of  them  actually  came 
to  consider  a  veto  an  impeachable  offence  of  itself. 
Their  antics  over  these  blows  from  the  tenant  of  the 
White  House  recall  the  Jacobins  of  the  French  Rev 
olution  breathing  out  curses  against  Monsieur  Veto. 
Before  the  message  reached  the  House,  Loan,  a  bitter 
radical  from  Missouri,  submitted  a  resolution  declaring 
it  "the  imperative  duty  of  the  Thirty-Ninth  Congress 
to  take  without  delay  such  action  as  will  accomplish 
the  following  objects : 

"1.  The  impeachment  of  the  officer  now  exercising  the 
functions  pertaining  to  the  office  of  President  of  the  United 
States  and  his  removal  from  said  office  upon  conviction  of 
the  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  of  which  he  is  mani 
festly  and  notoriously  guilty. 

"2.  To  provide  for  the  faithful  and  efficient  administra 
tion  of  the  executive  department." 

A  point  of  order  carried  this  resolution  to  the  joint 
committee,  and  then  Ashley  of  Ohio  knew  that  his  hour 
had  come.  Eising,  as  he  solemnly  said,  "to  perform 
a  painful  but,  nevertheless,  to  me  an  imperative  duty," 
he  impeached  "Andrew  Johnson,  Vice  President  and 
acting  President  of  the  United  States,  of  high  crimes 
and  misdemeanors." 


\V~\)t       '<**' 

/)  u  &/  *\  \/ '-  '• ''"    '  •>. 

PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        153 

"I  charge  him  with  a  usurpation  of  power  and  violation 
of  law ; 

"In  that  he  has  corruptly  used  the  appointing  power; 

"In  that  he  has  corruptly  used  the  pardoning  power; 

1 '  In  that  he  has  corruptly  used  the  veto  power ; 

"In  that  he  has  corruptly  disposed  of  public  property 
of  the  United  States ; 

"In  that  he  has  corruptly  interfered  in  elections,  and 
committed  acts  which,  in  contemplation  of  the  Constitu 
tion,  are  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors." 

And,  therefore,  he  submitted  a  resolution  authorizing 
the  committee  on  the  judiciary  "to  inquire  into  the 
official  conduct  of  Andrew  Johnson,  Vice  President  of 
the  United  States,  discharging  the  powers  and  duties 
of  the  office  of  President  of  the  United  States,"  and 
report  whether  he  "has  been  guilty  of  acts  which  are 
designed  or  calculated  to  overthrow,  subvert  or  cor 
rupt  the  Government  of  the  United  States  or  any  de 
partment  or  office  thereof. ' '  .  This  resolution  was 
adopted,  and  the  next  day  the  House  passed  the  District 
Suffrage  bill  over  the  veto  without  a  word.* 

In  order  to  show  the  character  of  the  man  who  now 
posed  as  the  Atlas  of  the  Impeachment,  we  are  com 
pelled  to  touch  once  again  the  notorious  Conover  whom 
we  left  in  the  jail  of  the  district,  lying  under  a  con 
viction  of  perjury .f  Both  before  and  after  his  trial  he  set 
about  obtaining  a  pardon  on  the  extraordinary  ground 
that  in  committing  his  perjuries  and  subornations  of 
perjury  he  was  but  the  tool  of  high-placed  government 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  319-321. 
f  Supra,   p.    142. 


154  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT' JOHNSON 

officials,  who,  being  threatened  with  public  exposure, 
to  save  themselves  threw  him  over,  set  on  foot  his 
prosecution  and  procured  his  conviction.  Andrew  J. 
Kogers,  the  Democratic  member  of  the  committee  in 
vestigating  Jefferson  Davis 's  complicity,  became  con 
vinced  that  this  was  the  true  view  of  the  case,  and, 
believing,  as  he  said,  Conover  "less  guilty  than  others, 
or  at  least  one  other"  (no  doubt  Holt),  wrote  a  letter 
to  the  President  recommending  his  pardon,  in  which 
four  leading  Democratic  representatives,  on  the  faith 
of  Rogers 's  minority  report  and  his  statement  in  the 
letter,  concurred.  At  the  very  time  he  was  burrowing 
his  way  to  executive  clemency  by  betraying  his  em 
ployers  and  posing  as  their  castaway  accomplice,  Con- 
over  was  opening  up  another  channel  of  approach  by 
preparing  a  bait  for  their  rabid  appetite  for  testimony 
against  the  executive  whose  clemency  he  was  invoking. 
He  managed  by  means  of  his  wife — he  was  now  pass 
ing  under  the  name  of  Charles  A.  Dunham— to  spread 
abroad  a  rumour  that  he  could  furnish  damnatory  evi 
dence  against  Andrew  Johnson.  Such  a  rumour  was 
enough  of  itself  to  set  the  enemies  of  the  President 
wild  and  to  secure  the  detention  of  the  convict  in  a 
place  where  he  was  easily  within  reach.  Distinguished 
visitors  crowded  his  receptions  in  the  jail,  among  whom 
was  Ashley,  the  self-appointed  scavenger  to  the  judi 
ciary  committee  searching  high  and  low  for  material 
to  feed  the  delusion  under  which  he  was  labouring. 
Dunham  and  his  wife  assured  this  pioneer  of  the  Im 
peachment  that  they  could  lay  their  hands  on  certain 
letters  written  by  Andrew  Johnson  to  Jefferson  Davis 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        155 

and  to  J.  Wilkes  Booth  implicating  the  President  be 
yond  peradventure  in  the  assassination  of  his  prede 
cessor.  Notwithstanding  the  notoriety  of  the  criminal 
with  whom  he  was  dealing,  Ashley  showed  no  hesita 
tion  in  taking  his  word;  and  we  shall  soon  find  him 
actively  employed  with  Holt  in  attempting,  from  their 
side  of  the  line,  to  filch  from  the  President  a  pardon 
of  the  perjured  witness  they  meant  to  use  to  prove 
him  an  accomplice  of  assassins.  In  the  meantime,  and 
until  Conover  could  obtain  his  pardon,  Ashley  fell  back 
upon  LaFayette  C.  Baker,  the  late  chief  of  the  Detec 
tive  Bureau,  whom  the  President  dismissed  from  office 
for  his  insolence  in  the  case  of  Mrs.  Cobb— a  pardon- 
broker  who  haunted  the  precincts  of  the  White  House 
in  the  fall  of  1865.  He,  too,  was  eager  to  rekindle  his 
declining  notoriety,  and  Ashley  bore  him  in  triumph  to 
the  committee,  there  to  unfold  his  wondrous  tale,  as 
follows:  In  the  fall  of  1865,  a  man  from  Nashville 
by  the  name  of  Adamson,  who  was  prowling  around 
Washington  in  search  of  an  office  or  a  job,  showed  him 
a  letter  written  by  Andrew  Johnson,  while  Military 
Governor  of  Tennessee,  to  Jefferson  Davis— which  let 
ter  a  colored  servant  of  a  son  of  Parson  Brownlow 
had  purloined  from  Johnson's  desk  before  it  was  sent. 
Baker  had  carried  the  letter  to  the  White  House  and, 
showing  the  signature  only  to  the  President's  private 
secretary,  ascertained  its  genuineness,  and  afterwards 
returned  the  letter  to  Adamson  who,  as  Baker  with  the 
most  engaging  candour  admitted,  wanted  to  sell  it  to 
the  best  advantage.  This  letter  Baker  read  several 
times,  and  he  now  gave  to  the  committee  from  mem- 


156  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ory  a  vague  version  of  its  contents.  It  was -a  reply 
to  a  letter  from  the  Confederate  President  or  some 
one  high  in  authority,  and  after  disclosing  the  position 
of  the  Federal  forces  in  Tennessee,  suggested  a  cer 
tain  line  of  policy,  on  the  adoption  of  which  by  the 
Confederacy,  the  writer  "would  turn  the  whole  power 
he  possessed  in  Tennessee  over  to  the  rebel  cause" 
"he  was  going  with  them."  Other  persons  had  seen 
this  letter— three  members  of  Congress,  for  instance, 
and  one  Matchett;  and  Baker  was  confident,  if  em 
ployed  for  that  purpose,  he  could  produce  it  as  well 
as  other  letters  which  Adamson  said  he  had  also.  The 
committee,  after  listening  to  Baker's  version  of  the 
Cobb  case,  in  which  he  besmirched  the  President  to 
his  heart's  content,  dismissed  him  to  hunt  up  the  let 
ters  in  the  existence  of  which  Ashley  for  one  professed 
to  believe.*  Beside  this  star-witness,  the  labours  of  the 
committee  consisted  in  hearing  one  or  two  subordinates 
of  the  State  Department  describe  the  practice  there  in 
making  appointments  and  removals;  in  hearing  a  wit 
ness  tell  of  a  Tennessee  railroad  which,  having  been 
taken  possession  of  and  partly  built  by  Governor  John 
son,  was  turned  over  to  the  corporation  that  owned  it 
before  the  war  by  order  of  President  Johnson;  and 
in  hearing  the  provisional  governors  of  Alabama  and 
Mississippi  reveal  the  qualifications  of  the  test-oaths 
they  took,  the  restoration  of  captured  cotton  in  their 
states  and  the  opposition  of  the  President  to  the  four 
teenth  amendment.  Up  to  the  admission  of  Nebraska, 
an  event  to  the  narration  of  which  we  are  about  to 

*  Imp.  Inv.,  Testimony  of  Baker,  pp.  2  et  seq. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        157 

turn,  the  investigation  seemed  to  lag.     After  that  date, 
the  proceedings  became  somewhat  brisker,  but  the  testi 
mony  was  fragmentary  and  taken  in  the  most  desultory 
way.     We  come  upon  bits  of  evidence  concerning  New 
York  Custom  House  frauds,  negotiations  with  the  sena 
tors-elect  of  Colorado;  campaign  intrigues;  removals 
from  office  for  political  reasons ;  the  New  Orleans  riot ; 
even  a  transaction  by  which  it  was  sought  to  prove  the 
military  governor  of  Tennessee  contrived  to  make  ten 
thousand  dollars ;  but  as  yet  these  were  mere  hints  and 
led  to  nothing  definite.*      Nevertheless,  the  majority 
of  the  committee  did  not  scruple  to  report  in  the  last 
hours  of  the  Congress  "that  sufficient  testimony  had 
been  brought  to  its  notice  to  justify  and  demand  the 
further  prosecution  of  the  investigation. ' '      The  soli 
tary  Democrat  on  the  committee,  in  a  minority  report, 
found  that  "there  is  not  one  particle  of  evidence  to 
sustain  any  of  the  charges " ;  "  that  the  case  is  wholly 
without  a  particle  of  evidence  upon  which  impeach 
ment  could  be  founded";  "the  case  is  entirely  void  of 
proof";  statements  in  which  any  candid  reader  of  the 
testimony    will    now    concur.      The    majority    in    the 
House,  however,  were  determined  to  keep  the  proceed 
ing   on   foot;   and,   although   disappointment   was   ex 
pressed  by  the  more  fiery  spirits  that  the  removal  of 
the  usurper  could  not  have  been  accomplished  during 
the  current  session,  yet,  in  view  of  the  great  work  done 
in  the  enactment  of  measures  of  pressing  importance, 
the  leaders  were  content  to  pass  the  "crowning  labor" 
over  to   a   Congress   coming   fresh   from   the   people, 

*  Imp.  Inv.,  testimony  passim. 


158  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

whose  members,  they  had  taken  care  to  provide,  would 
appear  on  the  instant  their  predecessors  dispersed.* 

While  the  House  was  thus  engaged  in  holding  the 
grand  inquest,  the  Senate  was  engaged  in  making  ready 
for  the  trial.  Some  of  the  men  who  were  to  be  judges 
of  the  High  Court  resorted  again  to  the  same  methods 
of  reinforcing  the  majority  which  came  to  naught  at 
the  last  session.  Early  in  December,  Wade  reintro- 
duced  the  bill  for  the  admission  of  Nebraska  which 
failed  before  to  become  a  law  owing  to  the  adjourn 
ment  of  Congress  and  the  withholding  of  his  signature 
by  the  President,  and,  instead  of  calling  up  the  Colo 
rado  bill  now  lying  on  the  table  under  a  veto,  intro 
duced  a  fresh  bill  for  her  admission.  There  was  the 
less  excuse  for  the  adoption  of  this  transparent  device 
to  add  four  senators  to  the  majority,  because  the 
Kepublicans  were  stronger  than  ever  in  the  Senate. 
Scovel,  that  interesting  rover  who  at  a  critical  moment 
held  back  the  New  Jersey  senate  from  joining  in  the 
election  of  a  successor  to  the  evicted  Stockton,  having 
been  reconverted,  as  he  himself  pretended,  by  the  New 
Orleans  riot,  the  legislature  (called  together  by  the 
governor)  elected  a  sound  Republican  to  fill  Stockton's 
place,  Alexander  G.  Cattell.  Wright  died  on  the  first 
day  of  November,  1866,  and  the  governor  immediately 
appointed  another  sound  Republican,  Frederick  T. 
Frelinghuysen,  to  fill  the  vacancy ;  so  that,  at  the  open 
ing  of  the  session  of  Congress,  New  Jersey  having 
regained  her  equal  suffrage,  the  twenty-six  states  al 
lowed  to  put  in  an  appearance  were  represented  by 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  1754-5. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        159 

thirty-eight  senators  of  the  dominant  party  and  by 
only  fourteen  supporters  of  the  administration,  of 
whom  but  nine  were  Democrats  proper.  With  three 
to  spare  over  the  necessary  two-thirds,  it  would  seem 
these  honourable  men  might  have  shown  the  meagre 
forces  of  their  opponents  a  slight  glimpse  of  magnan 
imity.  But  such  radicals  as  Wade  who  had  charge  of 
these  measures  could  put  no  trust  in  that  cautious  type 
of  statesmen  who  cherished  an  old-fashioned  regard 
for  the  superior  sanctity  of  constitutional  limitations 
as  against  the  passionate  desires  of  the  current  re 
former.  They  could  not  forget  how  such  eminent 
Republican  senators  as  Fessenden  and  Trumbull  and 
Grimes  had  failed  them  before,  and  they  feared  that 
in  the  last  desperate  wrench  they  might  fail  them 
again.  On  the  fourteenth  of  December,  when  Wade 
moved  his  new  Nebraska  bill,  Hendricks  inquired  why 
the  Colorado  bill  which  had  passed  both  Houses  and 
"been  vetoed  by  the  President  was  not  first  taken  up 
and  disposed  of.  Wade  explained  that  at  the  last 
session  he  did  not  think  he  had  the  numbers  to  pass  it 
over  the  veto ;  but,  at  this  session,  he  did  not  intend 
"to  take  up  the  veto  message  at  all  because  new  light- 
has  come  before  our  eyes  showing  the  propriety  of  the 
admission  of  Colorado,  so  that  the  President  on  the 
presentation  of  a, new  bill  will  be  glad  to  let  it  pass 
without  his  veto.  I  have  no  doubt  of  it."  This 
strange  and,  viewed  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events, 
incredible  statement  was  accepted  in  silence;  but  the 
hardy  senator  from  Ohio  had  more  trouble  with  Sumner 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  122,  124. 


160  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

who  prided  himself  on  the  minute  precision  of  his 
consistency.  It  is  to  his  tireless  hostility  to  the  word 
"white"  in  the  franchise  provision  of  the  constitutions 
of  the  proposed  states  that  we  owe  the  exposure  of  the 
utter  lack  of  merits  of  both  measures  from  the  lips  of  one 
of  the  radicals  themselves ;  and  he  now  renewed  his  an 
tagonism  with  redoubled  vigour.  Wade,  who  was  as  anx 
ious  for  negro  suffrage  as  the  senator  from  Massachu 
setts,  was  greatly  annoyed,  and  pointed  to  Sumner's 
vote  in  favour  of  the  fourteenth  amendment  and  the  ad 
mission  of  Tennessee,  l '  that  now  has  her  representation 
on  the  floor  equally  divided  between  rebellion  and  loy 
alty"  (as  the  senator  expressed  it,  with  little  regard  for 
the  feelings  of  Patterson).  He  wanted  Nebraska  in  for 
a  certain  purpose,  and  he  regarded  an  objection  that  the 
Constitution  denied  suffrage  to  the  fifty  negroes  of  the 
population  as  trivial  and  captious.  "I  hope,"  he  said, 
*  *  that  we  shall  not  on  this  mere  technicality  coldly  turn 
away  a  territory  comprised  of  patriotic  men.  .  .  .  These 
men,  let  me  tell  gentlemen  around  me,  believe  just  as  you 
do ;  they  are  ready  to  aid  and  assist  you  in  carrying  out 
your  great  principles.  ...  On  their  admission  they  will 
add  power  to  your  arm  to  enforce  them."*  But  the 
appeal  was  useless.  Simmer,  after  showing  by  the 
journal  of  the  Senate  that  he  voted  not  for  but  against 
the  admission  of  Tennessee,  loftily  exclaimed :  "  In  other 
days  we  all  united  in  saying  '  No  more  slave  States ! '  I 
now  insist  upon  another  cry :  c  No  more  States  with  the 
word  white  in  their  constitutions!'  "f  Brown  of  Mis- 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  127. 
t/c/.,p.  124. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        161 

souri— a  radical  of  the  Sumner  type— offered  a  proviso 
that  the  act  should  not  take  effect  except  upon  the  funda 
mental  condition  that  there  should  be  no  denial  of  the 
elective  franchise  on  account  of  race  or  colour ;  a  condi 
tion  to  which  the  people  of  the  territory  should  declare 
their  assent  at  an  election.  An  identical  proviso  offered 
by  Sumner  last  July  got  but  five  votes,  and,  offered 
again  by  him  in  the  case  of  Tennessee,  got  but  four  (in 
cluding,  however,  Wade's  own)  ;  so  insuperable  was  the 
objection  then  thought  to  be  that  Congress  could  not 
make  a  constitution  for  the  people  of  a  state.  But  Wade 
cared  for  nothing  now  but  to  avoid  delay.  He  not  only 
wanted  the  senators  in  but  he  wanted  them  in  instantly. 
As  he  said: 

"The  respectable,  truth-loving  gentlemen  who  have  been 
sent  here  to  represent  that  Territory  as  Senators  on  this 
floor  .  .  .  announce  the  fact  that  this  Territory  is  up  to 
the  high-water  mark  on  the  subject  of  human  rights.  I 
want  them  here  because  I  want  this  body  strengthened 
immensely  by  the  reinforcement  that  these  gentlemen  will 
bring  to  bear  upon  every  question  you  can  get  up ;  and 
you  stand  cavilling  here  over  a  mere  technicality."* 

For  some  reason  he  was  in  great  haste.  He  begrudged 
the  time  spent  in  eulogies  upon  the  deceased  senator, 
Wright.  He  tried  to  rescind  the  resolution  providing 
for  the  usual  holiday  recess.  Wilson  proposed  that  the 
assent  to  the  fundamental  condition  should  be  given  by 
the  legislature  instead  of  the  people,  thus  cutting  off 
much  of  the  delay  so  dreaded  by  Wade ;  and,  in  doing  so, 
he  gave  notice  that,  although  he  had  voted  for  both  the 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  147-1G3. 
11 


162  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Nebraska  and  Colorado  bills  last  session,  he  must  now 
revert  to  the  central  principle  he  had  violated  to  meet  an 
emergency. 

"But,  sir,"  he  said,  "by  the  course  of  events  our  power 
in  the  Senate  is  now  assured,  and  after  the  fourth  of  March 
next  wrill  be  quite  as  strong  as  it  is  now.  I  need  not  state, 
for  we  all  know  how  our  members  have  increased  until  now 
we  have  a  clear,  undoubted  two-thirds  vote  here  upon  all 
the  leading  questions  that  may  arise.  .  .  .  Satisfied  to  admit 
Colorado  and  Nebraska,  always  excepting  that  word  'white' 
that  stained  their  constitutions,  I  gave  voice  and  vote  to 
their  admission  to  secure  for  the  holy  cause  for  which  we 
were  struggling  the  control  of  the  Senate.  That  control 
has  been  otherwise  secured.  The  commanding  necessity 
under  which  I  then  acted  exists  no  longer.  Then  the  ad 
mission  of  these  young  States  in  spite  of  the  word  'white' 
seemed  to  me  to  be  demanded  by  the  needs  of  the  periled 
country;  nowr  their  admission  with  the  \vord  'white,'  it 
seems  to  me,  is  not  demanded  by  the  needs  of  the  country."* 

Wade  tried  to  force  a  vote  but  Simmer,  for  the  first 
time  since  he  defeated  the  admission  of  Louisiana  in  Lin 
coln 's  time,  resorted  to  filibustering,  and  the  measure 
went  over  until  after  the  holidays,  when,  Wilson's  sug 
gestion  being  rejected,  the  debate  centred  on  the  Brown 
proviso  which  Wade  implored  the  Senate  to  vote  down 
for  the  reason  that  it  would  kill  the  bill. 

"No\v,  Mr.  President,  why  is  it  that  I  stand  here  the 
advocate  of  the  admission  of  this  State  .  .  .  when  I  have 
.  .  .  been  generally  the  advocate  of  equal  rights,  .  .  .  ? 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  191. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        163 

It  is  because,  when  I  consider  the  condition  in  which  the 
country  is,  and  when  I  look  to  the  terrible  struggle  which 
is  right  ahead  of  us,  I  feel  disposed  to  arm  myself  and  be 
equipped  with  all  the  forces  that  are  legitimately  within 
my  power.  The  Senator  from  Wisconsin  said  yesterday' 
that  he  once  voted  for  the  admission  of  this  State  because 
he  thought  we  wanted  to  be  reinforced.  .  .  .  Sir,  it  was 
a  good  idea.  Now,  he  says,  however,  that  the  clouds  have 
passed  by  and  all  is  fair  weather,  and  there  will  be  in  the 
future  no  necessity  for  reinforcements." 

Howe— "I  said  that  we  had  got  votes  enough  now." 

Wade  continuing : 

"But  how  he  could  come  to  the  conclusion  that  we  shall 
not  want  any  reinforcements  I  am  unable  to  say.  When 
he  gave  the  vote  to  which  he  referred,  had  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  made  a  decision  which  lets 
loose  upon  all  the  Union  men  of  the  South  the  bloodhounds 
of  those  rebellious  unrestricted  States,  and  denies  the 
right  of  the  military  power  to  protect  them?  Did  he 
know  then  that  two  of  the  departments  of  the  Government 
.  .  .  had  turned  in  with  the  adversary  and  were  ready 
now  to  abet  his  course? 

"Suppose  .  .  .  there  are  enough  in  numbers;  but  yet 
you  are  in  default.  I  wrant  to  reinforce  you  with  some 
that  will  make  no  default ;  I  want  to  bring  you  soldiers 
who  will  not  shirk  from  any  responsibility;  and  such  are 
knocking  at  your  door  to-day.  They  are  not  of  the  limping 
sort  who  will  leave  your  friends  in  peril.  .  .  . 

"Although  I  believe  that,  by  a  bold,  determined  perform 
ance  of  our  duty,  we  have  the  remedy  in  our  hands  still; 
I  want  to  make  sure  that,  if  the  remedy  must  be  here,  we 
shall  have  force  enough  to  look  down  all  opposition.  .  .  . 


164  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

I  will  leave  nothing  to  doubt  that  I  can  make  certain  in 
the  emergency." 

"I   will   not   sacrifice   this   republic   to   the   ghost   of   a 
technicality. '  '* 

This,  certainly,  was  explicit  enough  in  regard  to  the 
"true  inwardness"  of  the  measure.  Nobody  could 
doubt,  after  this,  the  exact  position  on  the  question  of 
impeachment  of  the  senator  from  Ohio.  In  the  midst  of 
his  perplexities,  Edmunds  furnished  him  a  way  out. 
The  senator  from  Vermont  contended  that  the  assent  of 
the  people  of  the  coming  state  was  not  necessary  to  give 
validity  to  any  fundamental  condition  Congress  might 
exact,  and  the  amendment  he  offered  simply  appended 
to  the  act  of  admission  a  "fundamental  and  perpetual 
condition  that  there  shall  be  no  denial  of  suffrage  by 
reason  of  race  or  color  in  the  state  of  Nebraska";  in 
volving,  therefore,  no  delay  in  the  seating  of  the  two  sen 
ators,  while  preserving  intact  the  consistency  of  the 
negro-suffragists.  It  was  true  that  many  of  the  best 
lawyers  in  the  Senate  were  of  the  opinion  that  the  sec 
tion  amounted  to  nothing  more  than  the  expression  of 
the  wish  of  Congress  and  had  not  the  binding  force  of  a 
law.  Wade  undoubtedly  thought  so;  but,  seeing  that 
without  some  such  placebo  the  bill  could  not  pass,  at 
least  over  a  veto,  he  snatched  at  the  timely  aid,  and  the 
amendment  being  adopted  the  bill  passed  by  a  vote  of 
twenty-four  yeas  to  fifteen  nays.  Instantly  on  its  pas 
sage,  Wade  moved  the  consideration  of  his  fresh  Colo 
rado  bill.  Edmunds  moved  the  application  of  his 
specific,  the  motion  was  agreed  to  and  the  Senate  passed 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  335-6. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        165 

the  bill  by  virtually  the  same  vote.  For  neither  bill  did 
Fessenden  or  Trumbull  vote,  and  among  the  nays  in 
both  cases  were  such  Republicans  as  Foster,  Grimes  and 
Morgan.  What  in  the  case  of  any  other  man  would  have 
provoked  great  surprise,  Sumner  voted  for  both  bills. 
If  any  single  senator  had  demonstrated  the  gross  prac 
tical  demerits  of  these  measures  it  was,  as  we  have  seen, 
the  senator  from  Massachusetts.  But  these  objections 
upon  which  he  had  rung  the  changes  both  in  the  last  and 
the  present  session,  it  now  appeared,  were  mere  ciphers, 
employed  only  to  increase  the  value  of  the  one  fixed 
aversion  absorbing  the  senator's  mind.  The  word 
" white"  once  nullified;  this  "ghost  of  a  technicality," 
as  Wade  truly  called  it,  once  laid ;  such  objections  as  the 
glaring  insufficiency  of  the  population,  the  rejection  of 
the  constitution  at  the  regular  election,  and  the  violence, 
fraud  and  illegality  of  the  second  election,  became 
immaterial,  and  Sumner  could  welcome  the  four  votes 
from  Nebraska  and  Colorado  with  all  the  alacrity  of 
Wade. 

At  the  close  of  the  debate  Doolittle  remarked : 

"The  Senator  from  Ohio  in  the  beginning  of  the  discus 
sion,  and  before  the  political  necessities  had  pressed  upon 
him  as  they  have  been  pressing  upon  him  of  late,  in  an  argu 
ment  which  he  has  not  answered  and  which  has  not  been 
and  cannot  be  answered,  showed  conclusively  that  this 
Territory  of  Colorado  was  in  no  condition  to  be  admitted 
as  a  State  into  the  Union.  But,  sir,  there  are  other  rea 
sons,  pressing  reasons,  reasons  of  political  necessity,  he 
would  have  us  understand.  It  is  necessary  to  reinforce 
a  majority  of  three-fourths  in  this  body  by  the  admission 


166  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

of  new  members  from  the  new  State  of  Colorado,  and  that 
is  the  reason  why  this  is  to  be  pressed."* 

But  what  must  have  been  Wade's  mortification  when 
the  House  refused  to  adopt  the  Edmunds  specific !  And 
what  the  sardonic  astonishment  of  Sumner,  when  the 
body  that  had  once  approved  the  constitution  which  he 
denounced  as  not  republican  in  form,  turned  upon  him 
and  denounced  the  condition,  which  induced  him  to  vote 
for  the  bills,  as  a  loophole  through  which  all  the  ex 
cluded  states  might  creep  back  into  the  Union  with  the 
word  ' '  white ' '  still  defiling  their  constitutions !  Garfield 
sounded  the  alarm :  i '  Suppose  a  bill  offered  to-morrow 
to  let  South  Carolina  in  on  the  same  condition!"! 
Dawes  wanted  to  know  whether  a  violation  of  the  i  i  con 
dition-subsequent"  would  make  Nebraska  no  longer  a 
state.}  Washburne  sought  to  lay  the  bill  on  the  table, 
remarking :  "I  want  to  kill  it  and  to  kill  all  such  bills. ' ' 
Blaine  struck  the  ' t  condition ' '  a  fatal  blow : 

"If  gentlemen  wish  to  admit  Nebraska  here  without  any 
condition  at  all,  just  as  States  have  been  admitted  hereto 
fore,  leaving  the  question  of  suffrage  to  be  settled  by  that 
State  in  its  own  legislature  or  constitutional  convention, 
I  can  understand  it.  That  is  a  fair,  square  and  manly 
proposition.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  you  mean  to  say  that 
Nebraska  shall  be  admitted  on  this  condition,  only,  I  can 
understand  it.  But  to  dodge  between  the  two  propositions, 
to  say,  upon  one  side,  that  this  position  effects  the  object, 
and  then  turn  round  and  say  to  the  other  side  that  it  does 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  362. 
f  Id.,  p.  399. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        167 

no  harm  because  it  is  a  mere  placebo  to  certain  prejudices 
here,  I  confess  I  think  it  disgraceful  legislation."* 

The  truth  is,  a  reaction  had  begun  in  the  House 
against  impeachment ;  and  the  high-handed  proceedings 
of  Wade,  rendering  it  clear  that  he  was  packing  the  Sen 
ate  for  the  trial,  disgusted  many  members  not  lost  to  a 
saving  sense  of  public  decorum.  These  men  seized  the 
advantage  which  the  ineffectual ity  of  the  Edmunds  pro 
viso  gave  them  to  out-Sumner  Sumner  in  sedulity  for  the 
negro  and  so  i  i  kill  the  bills. ' '  But  the  tactics  of  the  im- 
peachers  were  too  skillful.  As  a  harmonizer  of  all  differ 
ences  between  them  and  the  negro-suffragists,  Mr.  Bout- 
well  proposed  to  add  "the  further  fundamental  condi 
tion  that  the  Legislature  of  said  State,  by  a  solemn  public 
act,  shall  declare  the  assent  of  said  State  to  said  funda 
mental  condition ' ' ;  on  receipt  of  a  copy  of  which,  the 
President  shall  forthwith  announce  the  fact;  "where 
upon  said  fundamental  condition  shall  be  held  as  a  part 
of  the  organic  law  of  the  State":  and  "the  admission 
of  the  said  State  into  the  Union  shall  be  considered  as 
complete' ':  the  state  legislature  to  be  convened  within 
thirty  days.  This  proposition  was  accepted,  the  amend 
ment  was  made,  the  bill  was  passed,  and  the  same  pro 
cess  was  applied  to  the  Colorado  case.f  The  opponents 
of  impeachment  among  the  Republicans  in  the  House 
were  forced  to  content  themselves  with  the  trivial  advan 
tage  of  having  postponed  the  admission  of  the  senators 
until  the  next  Congress.  It  should  be  noted  that  not  a 
single  Republican  member  took  any  thought,  apparently, 

*  Glolc,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  449. 
t  Id.,  pp.  480-2. 


168  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

of  the  practical  demerits  of  these  two  measures,  flagrant 
on  their  face.  Raymond  alone  called  attention  "to  the 
many  other  questions  entering  into  the  decision  beside 
the  question  of  suffrage. ' ' 

"There  is  a  great  question,  a  question  of  paramount  in 
terest  to  me  and  to  the  State  I  in  part  represent,  which  I 
cannot  help  considering ;  the  question  whether  it  is  just,  and 
wise,  and  politic  to  allow  the  great  States  of  the  Union,  such 
as  New  York,  Pennsylvania  and  Ohio,  the  old,  populous  and 
powerful  States,  to  be  overborne,  year  after  year,  in  one 
branch  of  the  Legislature  by  States  whose  population  is 
not  sufficient  to  entitle  them  to  a  single  member  on  this 
floor."* 

And  he  likened  "the  creation  of  new  States"  to  the 
English  expedient  of  creating  more  peers.  Even  as  it 
was,  the  two  bills  came  near  shipwreck  in  the  Senate. 
Edmunds  opposed  concurrence  with  the  House  amend 
ment  in  an  argument  unanswerable: 

"Either  Congress  has  the  power  in  setting  up  this  Ter 
ritory  into  a  State  to  declare  what  shall  be  the  practical 
exercise  of  equal  rights  there,  or  else  it  must  be  left  to  the 
people  in  the  act  of  forming  their  constitution  to  decide. 
There  is  no  middle  ground.  We  might  as  well  leave  it  to 
the  common  council  of  the  city  of  AYashington  to  decide 
how  that  shall  be  in  the  Territory  of  Nebraska,  as  to  the 
Legislature." 

The  Brown  proviso  submitting  the  question  to  the 
people  came  within  three  votes  of  being  adopted ;  when 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  478. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        169 

Wade  and  his  more  immediate  allies  by  a  united  effort 
succeeded  in  obtaining  a  concurrence  with  the  House.* 

It  will  have  been  noticed  that,  of  these  twin  measures, 
the  Nebraska  bill,  at  this  session,  was  given  the  right  of 
way,  the  debate  centred  exclusively  upon  it,  and,  after 
it  was  disposed  of,  Colorado  followed  in  silence  and  veiy 
much  as  a  matter  of  course.  But  the  President,  with  the 
tact  of  an  expert  combatant,  in  sending  both  vetoes  to 
the  Senate,  put  the  Colorado  case,  with  its  more  flagrant 
vices,  in  the  front;  and,  when  his  short  but  unanswer 
able  message  was  read,  "new  light"  had  come,  not  in 
deed  "showing  the  propriety  of  the  admission  of  Colo 
rado,"  but  of  sufficient  power  to  discover  the  cause  of 
Wade's  mysterious  timidity  over  this  particular  meas 
ure,  though  not  to  penetrate  the  secret  recess  where 
lurked  his  more  mysterious  hope  of  Presidential  ap 
proval. 

After  alluding  to  his  former  veto  still  awaiting  the 
consideration  of  the  Senate,  and  remarking  that  he  was 
"unable  to  perceive  any  reason  for  changing  his  opinion 
already  communicated,"  the  President  declared  that, 
on  the  contrary,  he  found  many  objections  of  which  he 
had  been  before  unaware,  and  that  "while  several  of 
those  he  then  assigned  had  gained  in  strength,  yet  others 
have  been  created  by  the  altered  character  of  the  measure 
now  submitted."  These  new  objections  he  now  pro 
ceeded  to  enumerate: 

1.  "The  constitution  under  which  this  State  govern 
ment  is  proposed  to  be  formed  very  properly  contains  a 
provision  that  all  laws  in  force  at  the  time  of  its  adop- 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39tn  Cong.,  pp.  484,  487. 


170  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

tion  and  of  the  admission  of  the  State  into  the  Union 
shall  continue  as  if  the  constitution  had  not  been 
adopted.  Among  those  laws  is  one  absolutely  prohibit 
ing  negroes  and  mulattoes  from  voting.  .  .  .  Yet  in  the 
bill  now  before  me,  by  which  it  is  proposed  to  admit  the 
Territory  as  a  State,  it  is  provided  that  'there  shall  be 
no  denial  of  the  elective  franchise  or  any  rights  to  any 
person  by  reason  of  race  or  color,  excepting  Indians  not 
taxed.'" 

2.  The  President  incorporated  in  his  message  a  copy 
of  the  protest  of  the  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
territory  against  the  passage  of  the  law  admitting  the 
state,  "without  first  having  the  question  submitted  to  a 
vote  of  the  people ' ' ;  made,  as  it  set  forth,  for  the  rea 
sons  :  * '  first,  that  we  have  a  right  to  a  voice  in  the  selec 
tion  of  the  character  of  our  government;  second,  that 
we  have  not  a  sufficient  population  to  support  the  ex 
penses  of  a  State  government. ' ' 

3.  A  census  of  the  population  of  the  territory  was 
being  taken,   and   the   returns   already   received   from 
fifteen  out  of  eighteen  counties,  showed  a  population  of 
24,909;  which,  with  the  three  remaining  counties  esti 
mated  to  contain  3,000,  would  make  the  total  popula 
tion  27,909:    or  not  one  fourth  of  the  number  required 
for  a  single  congressional  district  in  the  states  (127,000). 

4.  The  fourth  objection  brought  to  the  attention  of 
the  Congress  a  most  suspicious  variation  in  the  wording 
of  the  "further  fundamental  condition"  affixed  to  the 
Colorado  bill  from  the  wording  of  the  corresponding 
condition  affixed  to  the  Nebraska  bill.     As  proposed  by 
Mr.  Boutwell  and  added  to  the  Nebraska  bill,  this  conrli- 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        171 

tion  required  that  the  assent  of  the  state  to  the  guarantee 
of  negro  suffrage  should  be  given  by  '  *  the  Legislature  of 
said  State,"  and  directed  "said  State  Legislature"  to 
be  convened  by  "the  Territorial  Governor"  within 
"thirty  days."  In  passing  the  Colorado  bill,  which  fol 
lowed  immediately,  the  House  and  the  Senate  after 
wards  evidently  presumed  that  the  condition  added  in 
the  one  case  was  identical  with  tl^at  in  the  other.  But  it 
now  appeared  that  the  condition  affixed  to  the  Colorado 
bill  had  been  surreptitiously  altered,  so  that  the  assent 
of  the  state  must  be  given  by  "the  Legislature  elected 
under  said  State  Constitution, "  "  the  said  State  Legisla 
ture  "  to  be  convened  within  '  *  sixty ' '  days  by  the  * '  Gov 
ernor-elect. "  The  President,  speaking  solely  with 
reference  to  the  text  of  the  bill  before  him  without  com 
paring  it  with  the  text  of  the  Nebraska  bill,  pointed  out 
that  these  very  alterations  rendered  the  execution  of  the 
bill  "almost  impossible."  The  "governor-elect,"  to 
whom  was  given  authority  to  convene  the  legislature, 
had  "no  more  authority  than  a  private  citizen"  until 
after  the  admission  of  the  state,  which  could  not  take 
place  until  after  the  session  of  the  legislature  it  was  at 
tempted  to  authorize  him  to  call  together.  Furthermore, 
what  constituted  "the  Legislature  elected  under  said 
State  Constitution,"  as  contradistinguished  from  "the 
Legislature  of  said  State"— the  phrase  used  in  the 
Nebraska  bill?  Was  it  the  legislature  elected  at  the  time 
the  constitution  was  claimed  to  have  been  adopted,  or 
was  it  the  new  legislature  to  be  elected?  If  the  former, 
the  terms  of  all  the  members  of  the  lower  House,  and  of 
one  half  of  the  members  of  the  upper  House,  had  already 


172  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

expired ;  and  that  body  was  in  no  condition  to  give  the 
assent  of  the  state  to  any  fundamental  condition.  If  the 
latter,  sixty  days  was  a  time  entirely  inadequate,  con 
sidering  the  unsettled  and  isolated  condition  of  large 
portions  of  the  territory  especially  from  November  to 
May,  to  hold  an  election  and  then  convene  the  represen 
tatives  of  the  people.* 

Before  such  an  array  of  objections  well  might  even 
the  lion-hearted  Wade  quail.  He  called  for  an  imme 
diate  vote;  but  it  was  evident  he  had  lost  heart.  Hen- 
dricks  badgered  him  for  an  explanation  of  the  variation 
in  the  phraseology  of  the  proviso : 

"The  fact  is  communicated  to  the  Senate  by  the  veto 
message  that  one  branch  of  the  Legislature  of  Colorado 
has  expressed  views  .  .  .  hostile  to  this  proceeding.  I  want 
to  know  if  the  vote  upon  this  question  is  taken  away  from 
that  Legislature  because  ...  it  is  hostile  to  this  particular 
measure ;  and  I  think  the  Senator  when  the  subject  was  up 
before  should  have  called  the  attention  of  the  Senate  to  the 
difference  in  the  two  bills.  I  know  that  when  we  voted  I 
supposed  the  third  section  of  each  bill  was  in  precisely  the 
same  language.  Now,  I  ask  the  Senator  from  Ohio  ...  to 
explain  the  difference  and  to  give  the  Senate  to  understand 
why  there  is  a  difference  in  the  two  bills  in  this  section." 

Wade  sat  silent.  He  simply  would  not  explain.  After 
a  pause  Hendricks  continued: 

"As  the  Senator  from  Ohio  declines  to  make  any  explana 
tion  we  have  a  right  to  assume  that  there  was  some  purpose 
in  the  matter,  .  .  .  that  if  this  were  submitted  to  the  Legis- 

*Message  in  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  818.     McPh.  Recon.,  p.  160. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        173 

lature  of  Colorado  in  the  same  terms  in  which  it  was  sub 
mitted  to  the  Legislature  of  Nebraska  it  would  probably 
be  rejected.  Then  we  have  the  spectacle  before  Congress 
of  one  bill  submitted  to  one  Legislature  to  secure  a  partic 
ular  result  and  a  similar  bill  under  exactly  the  same  cir 
cumstances  submitted  to  another  and  a  different  Legislature 
in  another  Territory,  for  the  purpose  of  securing  a  result 
which  could  not  be  secured  if  the  submission  was  in  the 
same  language  as  in  the  other  bill.  I  do  not  think,  that 
being  properly  understood,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States 
would  be  a  party  to  business  of  this  sort." 

The  exposure  of  the  trick  was  complete;  and  the  re 
consideration  of  the  bill  was  quietly  dropped.* 

The  veto  message  on  the  Nebraska  bill  was  not  taken 
up  until  the  next  morning.  Wade  did  not  want  it  read 
at  all.  "I  do  not  know  that  anybody  wants  it  to  be 
read,"  he  grumbled.  "It  takes  up  time  and  nobody 
listens  to  it."  After  it  was  read,  he  did  not  press  its 
consideration.  His  hurry  to  push  the  matter  appeared 
to  be  gone.  For  more  than  a  week  of  the  rapidly  flying 
session,  nothing  was  heard  of  it.f  On  the  seventh  of 
February,  1867,  a  telegram,  read  by  Fowler  announcing 
that  "the  battle  was  won"  in  Tennessee— the  bill  grant 
ing  negro  suffrage  having  passed  the  day  before— 
seemed  to  arouse  him  from  his  apathy ;  for,  at  the  close 
of  the  next  day's  session,  by  an  arrangement  with  the 
minority  he  was  able  to  .crowd  the  bill  through  over  the 
veto.  He  then  made  a  tentative  effort  to  call  up  the 
Colorado  bill,  but,  on  the  Democrats  protesting  that  such 
a  move  was  not  in  the  bond,  he  acquiesced  without  a 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  820. 
t  Id.,  pp.  851-2. 


174  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

word,  and  Colorado  once  more  receded  into  the  back 
ground.*  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  add  that,  the  next 
day,  the  Nebraska  bill  passed  the  House  over  the  veto 
amid  applause  from  the  floor  and  galleries,  the  Speaker 
ostentatiously  directing  the  clerk  to  call  his  name ;  and, 
in  less  than  the  thirty  days  allowed  by  the  statute  for 
the  assembling  of  the  legislature,  the  full  design  of  the 
act  was  accomplished;  Nebraska  ratified  the  funda 
mental  condition ;  Nebraska  was  admitted  into  the 
Union ;  and,  on  the  first  day  of  the  next  Congress,  the  two 
senators  from  Nebraska— John  M.  Thayer  and  Thomas 
W.  Tipton— men  of  approved  and  superabundant  loy 
alty—were  numbered  among  the  already  overwhelming 
majority ;— thenceforth,  ex  officio,  judges  of  the  Court 
for  the  trial  of  Impeachments— sure  to  find  the  Presi 
dent  guilty  upon  any  charge  the  House  might  present. 
V  Another  move  in  anticipation  of  the  impeachment, 
made  at  this  juncture,  deserves  a  passing  notice. 
LaFayette  S.  Foster,  the  President  pro  tempo  re  of  the 
Senate,  would  cease  to  be  a  member  of  that  body  on  the 
fourth  day  of  the  coming  March.  An  excellent  presiding 
officer  and  a  man  of  conservative  instincts,  on  certain 
critical  occasions  he  had  not  come  up  to  the  standard  of 
party  loyalty,  recoiling  for  instance  from  such  bare 
faced  maneuvres  as  the  turning  out  of  Stockton  and  the 
dragging  in  of  Nebraska.  His  occupation  of  the  place 
next  in  the  line  of  succession  was  a  source  of  uneasiness 
to  those  radicals  who,  looking  forward  to  the  removal 
of  the  President  as  a  stern  necessity,  felt  that  a  man  of 
Foster's  mildness  and  regard  for  the  proprieties  would 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  1096. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        175 

be  no  match  for  Johnson  defending  the  crown  of  his 
amhition ;  and  who  were  resolved  that,  once  they  accom 
plished  a  revolution  in  the  palace,  no  second  apostate 
should  arise  to  halk  their  aims.  From  the  beginning 
of  the  session,  the  question:  Who  was  to  be  the  next 
President  of  the  Senate!  had  been  agitating  the  minds 
of  the  Republican  members  of  both  Houses.  Those  radi 
cals  who  favoured  impeachment,  as  time  went  on  and 
they  witnessed  his  bold  and  unscrupulous  conduct  of  the 
measures  to  reinforce  the  Senate,  gradually  united  upon 
Benjamin  F.  Wade  as  the  man  for  the  crisis.  Probably, 
no  man  less  fitted  for  the  duties  of  a  presiding  officer 
could  be  found  in  the  Senate.  He  himself  confessed: 
'  *  You  all  know  I  am  no  parliamentarian. ' '  But  he  was 
chosen  for  a  purpose  in  comparison  with  which  such 
duties  were  trivial.  He  was  known  to  be  brave  and  un 
flinching;  and,  if  Andrew  Johnson  whom  in  the  stub 
bornness  of  his  pugnacity  he  resembled,  should  resist 
removal  by  force,  they  wanted  a  leader  of  undaunted 
mettle.  Yet  it  was  because  of  the  very  traits  which 
endeared  him  to  the  revolutionist— his  reckless  boldness, 
his  predisposition  to  violent  methods,  his  tendency  to 
dash  headlong  to  his  object  over  every  impediment - 
that  his  accession  to  the  chief  magistracy  was  dreaded 
by  the  conservative  statesmen  and  politicians  of  the 
party.  Men  of  such  temperament  and  troubled  by  such 
apprehensions  turned  to  William  Pitt  Fessenden.  The 
senator  from  Maine  was  a  statesman  rather  than  a  poli 
tician.  He  was  called  a  perfectly  safe  man.  Dignified 
in  bearing,  cautious  in  judgment,  experienced  in  public 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  2003. 


176  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

affairs,  familiar  with  the  finances,  he  was  a  figure  that 
would  cut  no  grotesque  capers  in  the  seat  of  Lincoln.  A 
strict  party  man,  ready  to  go  great  lengths  with  his 
political  associates;  yet,  as  he  had  repeatedly  shown, 
there  were  limits  he  would  not  transgress. '  He  would  not 
knowingly  put  by  the  restraints  of  the  Constitution,  no 
matter  how  obstructive  they  were  to  the  success  of  some 
favourite  party  project.  If  the  emergency  of  the  re 
moval  from  office  of  the  President  proved  unavoidable, 
then  the  succession  of  so  fair-minded  a  man  and  so  safe 
a  statesman  would  reduce  the  inevitable  shock  to  the 
whole  framework  of  the  government  to  a  minimum.  But 
these  timid  friends  of  order  and  law  were  now  to  learn 
that  summary  methods  of  reaching  party  ends,  short 
cuts  across  the  open  instead  of  plodding  along  the  beaten 
roads  of  administrative  government— remedies  cutting 
asunder  at  one  stroke  the  knot,  in  fumbling  to  untie 
which  formal  statesmanship  lets  the  supreme  hour  go 
by— were  to  be  the  order  of  the  day.  To  Stevens  and 
Boutwell  and  Howard,  the  presence  of  the  punctilious 
Fessenden  on  the  joint  committee  on  reconstruction  dur 
ing  the  last  session  had  been  a  source  of  constant  irri 
tation.  His  conservatism,  they  believed,  leavened  the 
whole  body  and  tainted  the  constitutional  amendment. 
Sumner  thought  he  was  not  sound  on  the  negro  suffrage 
question,  because  he  favoured  an  educational  qualifica 
tion.  He  even  insisted  on  treating  the  President  with 
respect.  If  the  foundations  of  the  executive  department 
were  to  be  broken  up,  at  all  risks  no  such  martinet  should 
emerge  as  the  futile  birth  of  the  cataclysm ;  but  a  leader 
rejoicing  in  the  hurricane  and  at  home  in  the  storm.  As 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        177 

the  end  of  the  session  drew  near  it  becoming  evident 
that  none  but  a  radical  of  the  ultra  type  could  succeed, 
the  friends  of  Fessenden  abandoned  the  field ;  and  at  the 
senatorial  caucus  Wade  was  selected  without  opposition. 
Bearing  this  state  of  affairs  in  mind,  the  reader  will 
be  prepared  to  appreciate  to  what  lengths  this  chosen 
champion  of  the  impeachers  was  now  ready  to  venture. 
The  fourth  of  March  of  this  year  came  on  Monday; 
and  the  last  week  of  the  session  was  unusually  crowded 
with  business.  The  two  Houses  were  waiting  for  the 
vetoes  of  the  Tenure-of-office  and  Reconstruction  bills, 
and  employed  the  anxious  interval  in  bringing  up  the 
arrears  of  indispensable  legislation  which  the  import 
ance  of  these  two  measures  had  forced  them  to  neglect. 
At  a  little  before  midnight,  on  Thursday  the  twenty- 
eighth  of  February,  the  Senate  being  engaged  by  ex 
press  arrangement  on  the  Internal  Revenue  bill— Wade, 
suddenly  and  without  a  word  of  previous  notice,  moved 
to  postpone  all  other  business  and  take  up  the  Colorado 
bill  with  the  veto  message.  Fessenden  protested  on  ac 
count  of  the  pressing  nature  of  the  bill  under  discussion. 
Hendricks  suggested  that  Wade's  object  must  be  merely 
to  set  a  future  day  for  a  vote.  But  Wade  bluntly  in 
fo  rmed  him  he  expected  to  get  a  vote  that  night.  "  I  do 
not  know  that  I  can  succeed ;  but  I  shall  try  it. ' '  Hen 
dricks  proposed  that,  without  debate,  a  vote  be  taken 
at  half  past  twelve  to-morrow;  senator  Riddle  was  ill 
with  rheumatism,  he  said,  and  could  not  come  out  at 
night;  senator  Grimes  was  ill  also.  But  Wade  refused 
to  assent ;  and  when  asked  why  ?  responded : 

12 


178  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

' '  It  is  because  I  think  I  am  better  prepared  to-night  than 
I  shall  be  to-morrow  to  decide  this  question.  I  want  to 
be  frank  and  plain  about  it.  I  think  that  that  is  the  case." 

The  fact  was  a  caucus  had  been  held  on  this  measure* 
and  it  was  ascertained  that  Fessenden,  Harris  and  Mor 
gan  would  not  submit,  and,  therefore,  in  a  full  Senate, 
Wade  despaired  of  overriding  the  veto.  Now,  at  mid 
night,  was  his  final  opportunity.  With  Grimes  and 
Harris  and  Riddle  absent,  he  might  succeed.  He  meant 
to  take  full  advantage,  as  he  said  on  another  occasion, 
of  the  dispensations  of  Almighty  God.  But,  at  this 
point,  Doolittle  arose  and  uttered  a  few  words  of  ex 
postulation  : 

"Mr.  President.  I  think  the  proposition  which  has  been 
made  ...  is  a  proposition  which  has  never  before  been 
declined  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  never.  .  .  . 
Now,  here,  at  half  past  eleven  o'clock— almost  midnight- 
right  in  the  midst  of  the  business  of  the  Senate  upon  an 
important  measure,  ...  to  have  pressed  upon  us  by  sur 
prise  a  motion  to  postpone  a  bill  like  this,  and  take  up 
Colorado  for  a  vote  to-night,  is  beyond  anything  I  could 
ever  have  anticipated.  Sir,  we  are  not  without  being  ob 
served.  The  world  stands  looking  on.  The  people  of  the 
United  States  know7  what  is  transpiring  in  this  body;  and 
there  are  peculiar  reasons  which  connect  themselves  with 
the  Senator  from  Ohio,  which  will  draw  some  attention  to 
him,  and  to  the  course  he  is  pursuing  on  this  occasion.  AVe 
all  know,  time  and  again,  that  Senator,  in  pressing  this 
matter  of  Colorado,  has  said  over  and  over  that  his  purpose 
was  to  reinforce  a  majority  in  this  body,  already  more  than 
two  thirds.  And  for  what,  sir?" 

*  See  Globe,  1st  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  497. 


PREPARATIONS    FOR    IMPEACHMENT        179 

Wade  hastily  interrupted,  remarking  that  "many  of 
his  friends  here"  did  not  agree  with  him,  but  thought 
the  proposition  of  the  other  side  reasonable  and  he  there 
fore  acquiesced.  He  had  thrown  his  last  die  and  lost. 
The  next  morning  (March  first),  the  question  was  put 
whether  this  bill  shall  pass,  the  objections  of  the  Presi 
dent  notwithstanding.  There  were  yeas  29,  nays  19, 
not  voting  4;  Edmunds,  Fessenden,  Foster,  Grimes, 
Harris  and  Morgan,  all  strict  Republicans,  voting  no.* 
The  two-thirds  majority  was  broken.  The  bill  was 
lost.  The  high-water  mark  of  impeachment  had  been 
reached.  At  half  past  ten  o'clock  on  the  morning  of 
Monday,  March  the  fourth,  1867,  Foster  arose  and  bade 
farewell  to  the  Senate ;  and  Wade  was  thereupon  elected 
President  pro  tern.  It  is  a  bitter  commentary  on  the 
vaunted  disinterestedness  of  the  advanced  patriots  of 
this  period,  that,  had  they  had  their  way ;  had  their  own 
selected  leader  succeeded  in  forcing  a  vote  at  that  mid 
night  hour,  letting  in  the  two  senators  from  Colorado, 
as  he  had  let  in  the  two  senators  from  Nebraska ;— then 
in  all  human  probability,  Andrew  Johnson  would  have 
been  convicted  and  removed  from  office,  and  Benjamin 
F.  Wade  made  President  in  his  stead. 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  1922,  1928. 


CHAPTEK  II 

THE  TENURE-OF-OFFICE  AND  RECONSTRUCTION  ACTS 

WHILE  these  preparations  for  impeachment  were 
going  on,  the  two-fold  task  the  majority  had  imposed 
upon  themselves  at  the  beginning  of  the  session— the 
stripping  the  executive  of  its  prerogatives  and  the  sub 
jugation  of  the  South  to  the  Republican  party— was  not 
lost  sight  of.  The  Tenure-of-office  bill  and  the  Recon 
struction  bill— the  two  main  measures  necessary  to  its 
accomplishment— proceeded  steadily  step  by  step  and 
side  by  side.  About  nothing  were  the  Republicans  so 
sensitive  as  the  security  of  their  office-holders.  The 
host  of  offices  that  had  sprung  up  during  the  war  were 
considered  the  inalienable  assets  of  the  party,  to  disturb 
the  tenure  of  which  was  nothing  less  than  a  violation  of 
vested  rights.  Of  all  the  sins  of  the  President,  none  was 
so  unpardonable  as  his  removal  from  office  of  tried 
Republican  politicians  to  give  place  to  supporters  of  his 
policy.  What  exasperated  the  radicals  more  than  any 
thing  else  in  the  late  campaign  was  the  increasing  fre 
quency  of  such  removals ;  and  the  threat  of  Johnson  on 
his  western  tour  "to  kick  them  out'7  rankled  in  their 
breasts  more  deeply  than  all  his  other  utterances.  At 
the  last  session,  an  amendment  to  the  Post  Office  appro 
priation  bill  cutting  off  the  pay  of  appointees  not  event 
ually  confirmed  by  the  Senate  was  agreed  to,  then  re 
considered  and  disagreed  to.  The  amendment  was 

180 


THE    TENURE-OF-OFFICE    ACT  181 

directed  against  what  was  a  real  abuse,  the  practice  of 
holding  back  appointments  to  the  last  moment  and, 
after  adjournment,  reappointing  officers  not  confirmed, 
or  even  rejected,  by  the  Senate.  At  the  stage  of  the 
combat  we  have  now  reached,  such  timid  methods  were 
worse  than  useless.  The  attack  must  be  made  in  front 
and  along  the  whole  line.  Upon  other  questions  —  im 
peachment,  reconstruction,  negro  suffrage—  there  may 
have  been  at  times  a  lack  of  unanimity,  but  upon  the 
rigourous  necessity  of  depriving  the  President  of  the 
power  to  turn  their  partisans  out  of  office  the  Republi 
cans  were  a  unit. 

That  the  powers  of  appointment  and  removal  belong 
to  the  executive  department  of  a  government  main 
taining  the  three-fold  division  is  clear  enough  as  a  theo 
retical  proposition.  But  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  does,  in  fact,  expressly  qualify  the  power  of  ap 
pointment  by  requiring  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate  to  the  filling  of  the  higher  offices,  and,  also,  by 
granting  to  the  Congress  the  power  to  vest  by  law  the 
power  of  appointment  to  the  inferior  offices  in  the  heads 
of  the  departments  and  the  courts  of  law  as  well  as  in 
the  President  alone.  These  provisions  may  be  regarded 
as  infringements  on  the  theoretical  scope  of  the  power 
by  itself,  but  they  leave  the  power  of  removal  wholly 
intact.  No  word  is  expressed  tending  to  curtail  this 
branch  of  the  prerogative  ;  and  the  only  point  on  which 
to  hang  an  argument  is  that,  the  power  of  removal  being 
correlative  with  the  power  of  appointment,  the  restric 
tions  expressly  put  upon  the  one  must  by  implication 
be  put  upon  the  other.  And,  in  fact,  it  was  this  argu- 


182  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ment  that  constituted  the  entire  stock  of  the  advocates 
of  the  Tenure-of-office  bill.  Formidable  embarrass 
ments,  it  is  true,  hung  about  its  employment.  The  pre 
cise  question  arose  in  the  very  first  Congress,  was  thor 
oughly  discussed,  and  was  decided  adversely  to  the 
views  of  the  assailants  of  the  prerogative ;  and  that  de 
cision  had  been  recognized  by  the  judicial  department 
of  the  government  as  an  authoritative  construction  of 
the  constitutional  provisions  involved,  and,  although 
sometimes  questioned,  had  been  followed  by  every  Pres 
ident  of  the  United  States.  Indeed,  the  power  of  re 
moval  by  the  President  alone  for  no  other  reason  than 
difference  of  political  opinion  was  asserted  by  President 
Lincoln  by  a  more  sweeping  change  in  the  persons  of 
office-holders  than  had  ever  taken  place  before  in  the 
history  of  the  country.  Embarrassments  such  as  these, 
however,  could  not  check  the  leaders  of  the  dominant 
party,  believing  as  they  did  that  its  very  existence  was 
involved  in  overcoming  them. 

As  Williams  of  Pennsylvania  put  it  in  the  House : 

"If  you  would  impeach  successfully,  you  must  strip  him 
of  his  power  over  the  fortunes  of  the  citizen.  No  glittering1 
bauble  must  be  allowed  to  dazzle  the  vision,  or  tempt  the 
cupidity  of  or  ambition  of  either  the  prosecutor  or  the 
judge.  No  army  of  stipendiaries  must  be  allowed  to  sur 
round  his  person  and  depend  upon  his  will.  Invested  with 
all  these  imperial  prerogatives  and  backed  by  the  power  of 
the  sword,  another  President,  with  more  discretion  and 
wiser  counselors,  may  threaten  the  public  peace,  and 
threaten  it  more  successfully,  by  flinging  himself  into  the 
arena,  with  an  array  more  formidable  than  either  the 


THE    TENURE-OF-OFFICE    ACT  183 

Household  Swiss  or  the  incipient  Praetorian  guard  who 
lately  mustered  on  the  royal  summons,  and  disputing  with 
you  the  mastery  of  the  empire."* 

The  joint  committee  on  retrenchment,  having  been 
directed  at  the  last  session  to  inquire  into  the  whole 
matter,  in  December  of  the  present  session  reported  a 
bill,  the  first  section  of  which  required  the  consent  of  the 
Senate  to  the  removal  of  all  officers  to  whose  appoint 
ment  the  Constitution  required  the  consent  of  the  Sen 
ate,  excepting  officers  of  the  Cabinet.  This  exception, 
it  is  worth  while  to  notice,  was  sustained  by  the  House 
at  this  early  date  (by  a  slim  vote,  however)  and  a  sub 
stitute  that  Cabinet  officers  should  hold  ' '  for  and  during 
the  term  of  the  President  appointing  them ' '  unless 
sooner  removed  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate,  was  de 
feated  by  the  close  vote  of  yeas  77  to  nays  81 ;  showing 
that  the  leaders  of  the  House  had  not  yet  united  upon 
the  necessity  of  protecting  any  particular  member  of 
the  present  Cabinet,  t  The  second  section  gave  the  Pres 
ident  power  during  the  recess  of  the  Senate  to  suspend 
any  civil  officer  within  the  purview  of  the  first  section 
for  misconduct  or  because  of  disqualification  or  in 
capacity,  and  to  designate  some  person  to  perform  the 
duties  of  the  office ;  but,  within  twenty  days  after  the 
meeting  of  the  Senate,  the  President  must  report  such 
suspension  and  the  reasons  therefor  to  the  Senate ;  if  the 
Senate  concur,  the  President  may  remove  such  officer 
and  with  the  consent  of  the  Senate  appoint  another;  if 
the  Senate  refuse  to  concur,  the  suspended  officer  shall 

*  Globe,  2d  Scss.  30th  Cong 
f  Id.,  pp.  73,  94. 


184  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

forthwith  resume  his  office.  The  third  section  provided 
that  the  President  may  fill  vacancies  happening  during 
the  recess  "by  reason  of  death,  resignation,  expiration 
of  term  or  other  lawful  cause ' '  by  granting  commissions 
to  expire  at  the  end  of  the  next  session ;  if  no  complete 
appointment  was  made  by  the  end  of  the  session  then 
the  office  shall  remain  in  abeyance. 

This  bill  was  not  taken  up  for  consideration  by  the 
Senate  until  the  tenth  day  of  January,  1867 ;  when,  the 
reason  why  Cabinet  officers  were  excepted  from  the 
operation  of  the  first  section  being  demanded,  Edmunds, 
who  had  charge  of  the  bill,  answered: 

"It  did  seem  to  the  Committee,  after  a  great  deal  of  con 
sultation  and  reflection,  that  it  was  right  and  just  that  the 
Chief  Executive  of  the  nation"  should  have  "persons  per 
sonally  agreeable  to  him"  as  his  "confidential  advisers"; 
"in  whom  he  could  place  entire  confidence  and  reliance"; 
"and  that  whenever  it  should  seem  to  him  that  the  state  of 
relations  between  him  and  any  of  them  had  become  so  as  to 
render  this  relation  of  confidence  and  trust  and  personal 
esteem  inharmonious,"  "he  should  in  such  case  be  allowed 
to  dispense  with  the  services  of  that  officer." 

This  explanation  was  unsatisfactory  to  Howe  of  Wis 
consin,  who  went  so  far  as  to  deny  that  the  heads  of  the 
departments  were  the  confidential  advisers  of  the  Pres 
ident.  * '  The  Cabinet  was  not  the  President 's  Cabinet ; 
it  is  the  Cabinet  of  the  people, ' '  he  said.  Disagreement 
with  the  President  on  political  questions,  this  future 
member  of  the  Cabinet  of  President  Arthur  thought  a 
virtue  in  a  cabinet-minister  and  a  reason  whv  he  should 


THE    TENURE-OF-OFFICE    ACT  185 

be  kept  in  office.  The  senator  was  profuse  in  assevera 
tions  that  he  had  *  *  not  the  slightest  reference  to  the  per 
son  of  the  present  incumbent ' '  of  the  Presidential  office ; 
that  this  measure  was  no  piece  of  occasional  legislation 
but  for  all  time.  Not  a  senator  came  forward  to  sus 
tain  him,  and  his  motion  to  strike  out  the  exception  was 
negatived  without  a  division.* 

In  considering  the  third  section,  the  practice  of  mak 
ing  appointments  during  recess  to  fill  vacancies  created 
by  removals  and,  then,  either  not  sending  the  name  of 
the  appointees  to  the  Senate  at  all,  or,  if  sent  and  the 
appointees  not  confirmed,  reappointing  the  same  men 
after  the  close  of  the  session,  was  condemned  on  all 
sides,  and,  though  supported  by  the  examples  of  suc 
cessive  Presidents  and  the  opinions  of  successive  Attor 
ney-Generals,  acknowledged  to  be  at  war  with  the  spirit 
of  the  Constitution.  But  the  opposition  senators  claimed 
that  the  section  in  providing  that  where  an  appointment 
during  recess  was  not  made  complete  by  confirmation 
during  the  session,  the  office  must  remain  unfilled,  went 
too  far  and  trenched  upon  the  power  of  the  President 
to  fill  "all  vacancies  that  may  happen  during  the  re 
cess.  "  The  advocates  of  the  bill  replied  that  the 
" vacancies "  mentioned  in  this  clause  of  the  Constitu 
tion  were  only  those  happening  in  that  sense  of  the  word 
"implying  contingency,  chance,  uncertainty, "  and  not 
brought  about  by  the  arbitrary  act  of  the  President; 
further,  in  no  sense  could  a  vacancy  be  said  to  "  hap 
pen  "  during  recess  which  already  existed  during  the 
previous  session.  Their  opponents,  however,  showed 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  382-9. 


186  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

that  this  construction  was  contrary  to  the  uniform 
usage  of  the  government;  the  clause  having  been  held 
by  the  law  officers  to  mean  "happen  to  exist"  and  not 
' l  happen  to  occur. ' ' 

The  contest  over  the  constitutionality  of  the  provis 
ion  of  the  first  section  requiring  the  concurrence  of  the 
Senate  to  removals  by  the  President  was  not  begun  until 
the  fourteenth,  when  Williams  of  Oregon  assumed  the 
burden  of  the  affirmative.  That  a  legislative  construc 
tion  adverse  to  the  bill  was  put  upon  the  Constitution 
in  this  respect  by  the  first  Congress,  he  did  not  dispute 
but  strove  to  belittle  its  effect.  He  cited  from  the  Fed 
eralist  the  opinion  of  Hamilton:  "The  consent  of  that 
body  (the  Senate)  would  be  necessary  to  displace  as  well 
as  to  appoint ' ' ;  and,  not  denying  that  Madison  was  the 
sponsor  of  the  contrary  opinion,  he  asserted  that  Madi 
son  was  by  no  means  infallible— instancing  the  Virginia 
Resolutions  of  1798  and  the  United  States  Bank.  He 
claimed,  also,  that  while  the  Supreme  Court  had  made 
no  direct  decision,  still  its  deliverances  so  far  as  they 
went  tended  to  sustain  the  provision;  citing  the  case  of 
Ex  parte  Hennen  (13  Peters),  the  celebrated  case  of 
Marbury  vs.  Madison,  and  the  opinion  of  Justice  Mc 
Lean  in  U.  S.  vs.  Guthrie  (17  How.).  It  was  a  danger 
ous  experiment,  however,  to  cite  authorities  loosely  when 
Eeverdy  Johnson  was  to  reply.  The  senator  from  Mary 
land  proved  that  Hamilton,  too,  was  not  infallible  by 
showing  that,  after  having  been  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury,  he  changed  the  opinion  expressed  in  the  Federalist. 
He  showed  that  Marbury  vs.  Madison  had  no  reference 
to  the  higher  offices  of  the  government,  but  to  ' i  inferior ' ' 


THE    TENURE-OF-OFFICE    ACT  187 

offices  over  which  Congress  was  given  control  and  had 
exercised  it.  He  showed  that  in  both  Ex  parte  Plennen 
and  U.  S.  vs.  Guthrie,  the  opinions  cited  not  only  did 
not  bear  out  Williams 's  contention,  but  really  militated 
against  it;  in  the  former  case,  Justice  Thompson  say 
ing:  "It  was  very  early  adopted  as  the  practical  con 
struction  of  the  Constitution  that  this  power  was  vested 
in  the  President  alone,"  and  m  the  latter,  Justice  Mc 
Lean  saying :  i  i  this  power  of  removal  has  been  perhaps 
too  long  established  to  be  now  questioned. ' ' 

But  the  most  logical  and  exhaustive  argument  was 
delivered  by  Buckalew  of  Pennsylvania.  He  began  by 
laying  down  the  following  fundamental  proposition : 

' '  There  are  but  two  possible  locations  in  this  Government 
for  the  power  of  removal  under  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  ...  It  must  be  vested  in  the  President 
.  .  .  alone  who  is  the  head  of  the  executive  department  and 
charged  with  the  execution  of  the  laws,  or  it  must  be  vested 
in  the  President  by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate  upon  the  ground  of  implication  from  the  Senate's 
association  in  the  appointing  power.  ...  If  the  power  be 
not  vested  in  the  President  alone  or  in  the  President  and 
Senate,  it  is  located  nowhere;  it  exists  nowhere;  and  the 
argument  in  favor  of  the  enactment  of  a  law  proposing  to 
vest  it  anywhere  else  must  be  upon  the  ground  that  it  is  an 
ideal  or  latent  power  which  may  be  created  or  called  into 
active  existence  by  virtue  of  those  general  powers  of  legis 
lation  which  are  vested  in  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 
But  inasmuch  as  this  is  a  government  of  granted  and  vested 
powers  and  inasmuch  as  the  grants  to  Congress  are  specific, 
upon  the  very  statement  of  the  point  itself  the  conclusion 
must  be  against  it." 


188  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

If  the  power,  of  removal  be  in  the  President  and  Senate 
jointly  neither  can  exercise  it  alone;  and  the  bill  is  con 
demned  in  that  ' '  it  proposes  to  allow  the  President  a  power 
of  suspension  to  be  exercised  alone,  and  a  separate  power 
of  removal  of  the  officers  of  the  Cabinet." 
The  senator  gives  a  detailed  history  of  the  debate  of 
the  first  Congress,  with  copious  citations  showing  that 
the  precise  question  involved  in  the  present  bill  was 
thoroughly  ventilated  in  every  respect;  and  that  the 
question  was  decided  at  the  most  auspicious  moment  iu 
the  life  of  the  government,  when  no  private  or  party 
questions  could  by  any  possibility  have  been  affected. 
Mr.  Madison  is  quoted  as  saying  in  the  debate: 

"In  another  point  of  view  it  is  proper  that  this  interpre 
tation  should  now  take  place  rather,  than  at  a  time  when  the 
exigency  of  the  case  may  require  the  exercise  of  the  power 
of  removal.  At  present  the  disposition  of  every  gentleman 
is  to  seek  the  truth  and  abide  by  its  guidance  when  it  is  dis 
covered.  I  have  reason  to  believe  the  same  disposition  pre 
vails  in  the  Senate.  But  will  this  be  the  case  when  some 
individual  officer  of  high  rank  draws  into  question  the 
capacity  of  the  President,  without  the  Senate,  to  effect  his 
removal?  If  we  leave  the  Constitution  to  take  this  course 
it  can  never  be  expounded  until  the  President  shall  think 
it  expedient  to  exercise  the  right  of  removal,  if  he  supposes 
he  has  it;  then  the  Senate  may  be  induced  to  set  up  their 
pretensions.  And  will  they  decide  so  calmly  as  at  this  time, 
when  no  important  officer  in  any  of  the  great  departments 
is  appointed  to  influence  their  judgment  ?  The  imagination 
of  no  member  here  or  of  the  Senate  or  of  the  President  him 
self  is  heated  or  disturbed  by  faction.  If  ever  a  proper 
moment  for  decision  should  offer,  it  must  be  like  the 
present."  (Annals  of  Congress,  vol.  1,  p.  547.) 


THE    TENURE-OF-OFFICE    ACT  189 

1  i These  words  of  wisdom,"  remarked  Buckalew,  lti ex 
hibit  in  contrast  the  superior  competency  and  fitness  of 
the  Congress  of  1789,  before  parties  were  formed  and 
personal  interests  in  the  tenure  of  office  had  come  into 
existence,  over  the  present  Congress  filled  with  heated 
partisans  and  subject  to  the  influence  of  thousands  of 
officers  deeply  interested  in  the  subject  of  our  debates. ' ' 
The  senator  read  extracts  from  letters  of  Madison, 
written  at  the  time  the  question  was  again  agitated 
under  Jackson,  wherein  Madison  reiterated  his  old  opin 
ions.  In  one  to  John  M.  Patton  (March,  1834),  he  said, 
with  prophetic  vision:  "If  the  right  of  the  Senate  be, 
or  be  made,  a  constitutional  one,  it  will  enable  that 
branch  of  the  government  to  force  on  the  executive  de 
partment  a  continuance  in  office  even  of  the  Cabinet 
officers,  notwithstanding  a  change  from  a  personal  and 
political  harmony  with  the  President,  to  a  state  of  open 
hostility  toward  him." 

For  some  reason  the  debate  languished.  The  advo 
cates  of  the  bill  were  greatly  overmatched  in  argument 
by  its  opponents.  The  ablest  debaters  among  the  Re 
publicans  were  silent.  Sumner  enlivened  the  discussion 
by  offering  an  additional  section  providing  that  all  offi 
cers  now  appointed  by  the  President  or  by  the  head  of 
any  Department,  whose  compensation  exceeds  $1,000 
per  annum,  shall  be  appointed  by  the  President  and  the 
Senate;  and  that  the  terms  of  all  officers  appointed  by 
the  President  or  the  heads  of  departments  since  July, 
1866,  shall  expire  on  the  last  day  of  February,  1867. 
This  was,  indeed,  what  Edmunds  called  it,  "a  sweeping 

*For  debates  see  Globe,  id.,  pp.  407  et  seq.,  438-40,  461-3. 


190  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

proposition" ;  bringing  under  the  protecting  wing  of  the 
Senate  a  host  of  office-holders,  not  only,  but  retroacting 
on  deserters  from  the  party  by  snatching  away  the 
rewards  of  their  treachery.  Edmunds,  nevertheless, 
opposed  it,  with  great  earnestness,  as  "loading  an  im 
portant  bill  meant  to  settle  a  high  principle  with  a  mere 
matter  of  detail,"  and  " subjecting  .the  friends  of  the 
measure  to  the  imputation  of  their  opponents  that  the 
purpose  of  the  bill  was  merely  temporary,  directed 
against  Andrew  Johnson,"  "to  undo  something  the 
President  had  done."  Treating  the  protests  of  Ed 
munds  as  though  unuttered  or  uttered  only  in  a  dip 
lomatic  sense,  Sumner  out  with  the  naked  truth:  This 
"  is  a  proposition  which  grows  out  of  the  exigency  of  the 
hour.  The  bill,  on  a  larger  scale,  is  just  such  a  proposi 
tion  ;  it  grows  out  of  the  exigency  of  the  hour ;  and  that 
is  its  strength  and  merit.  We  shall  pass  it  ...  in  order 
to  meet  a  crisis.  We  all  feel  its  necessity.  ..." 

' '  The  President,  for  the  time  being  at  least,  ought  to 
be  deprived  of  the  extraordinary  function  which  he  has 
exercised.  He  has  announced  openly  in  a  speech  that 
he  meant  to  'kick  out  of  office'  the  present  incumbents." 
Therefore  we  owe  them  our  protection.  "It  belongs  to 
the  duty  of  the  hour. ' '  The  day  but  one  after,  he  re 
curred  to  the  subject:  "This,  Sir,  is  the  duty  of  the 
hour.  .  .  .  There  was  no  such  duty  on  our  fathers ;  there 
was  no  such  duty  on  our  recent  predecessors  .  .  .  ;  be 
cause  there  was  no  President  of  the  United  States  who 
had  become  an  enemy  to  his  country. '  'f  Being  called  to 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  468-9. 
t  Id.,  p.  525. 


THE    TENURE-OF-OFFICE    ACT  191 

order,  lie  was  sustained  by  the  Chair  and  on  appeal  the 
Chair  was  sustained  by  the  Senate.  The  next  day,  in 
vindication  of  freedom  of  speech  in  the  Senate,  he  said : 

"Andrew  Johnson  .  .  .  has  become  the  successor  of  Jef 
ferson  Davis  in  the  spirit  by  which  he  is  governed  and  in 
the  mischief  he  is  inflicting  on  his  country.  .  .  .  ' 

"In  holding  up  Andrew  Johnson  to  judgment,  I  do  not 
dwell  on  his  open  exposure  of  himself  in  a  condition  of 
beastly  intoxication  while  he  was  taking  his  oath  of  office; 
nor  do  I  dwell  on  the  maudlin  speeches  by  which  he  has 
degraded  the  country  as  it  was  never  degraded  before ;  nor 
do  I  hearken  to  any  reports  of  pardons  sold,  or  of  personal 
corruption.  .  .  .  Those  things  are  bad;  very  bad;  but  they 
might  not,  in  the  opinion  of  some  senators,  justify  us  on  the 
present  occasion." 

But  "the  President  has  usurped  the  powers  of  Congress 
on  a  colossal  scale,  and  he  has  employed  these  usurped 
powers  in  fomenting  the  rebel  spirit  and  awakening  anew 
the  dying  fires  of  rebellion."  "He  has  become  a  terror  to 
the  good  and  a  support  to  the  wicked. "  "  This  is  his  great 
and  unpardonable  offense.  ...  lie  is  an  usurper,  who, 
promising  to  be  a  Moses,  has  become  a  Pharaoh. ' ' 

"I  shall  not  be  led  aside  to  consider  the  full  remedy  for 
this  usurpation." 

Eeverdy  Johnson  gravely  rebuked  the  indulgence  in 
such  epithets  against  the  President  by  a  senator  at  that 
particular  juncture,  when  impeachment  proceedings 
were  pending  in  the  House.  "What  sort  of  a  trial,  as 
far  as  that  particular  senator  is  concerned,  would  the 
President  of  the  United  States  have  should  he  be  im 
peached  for  being  an  enemy  to  his  country,  for  being  a 
usurper  .  .  .  1  Suppose  we  all  went  on  following  the 


192  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

authority  of  the  honorable  member  from  Massachusetts, 
and  expressed  the  same  opinion ;  what  would  the  world 
say!"* 

Sumner's  section  being  voted  down,  Howe  renewed 
his  motion  to  strike  out  the  exception  of  Cabinet  officers ; 
and  he  supported  it  by  a  consideration  now  for  the  first 
time  openly  broached.  Quoting  from  the  Xew  York 
Herald  a  rumour  that  senator  Cowan,  to  whom  the  Presi 
dent  had  tendered  the  appointment  of  minister  to  Aus 
tria,  had  been  offered  the  portfolio  of  Secretary  of  War, 
he  said :  "If  my  amendment  be  adopted,  then  this  port 
folio  will  not  operate  at  all  to  dissuade  the  gentleman 
alluded  to  from  going  to  Austria. "  "I  should  prefer  to 
see  the  present  incumbent  retained  in  the  custody  of  that 
portfolio;  and  therefore  I  am  not  willing  to  leave  the 
power  in  the  hands  of  the  President  to  take  it  from  him 
without  the  consent  of  the  Senate. ' '  Cowan  denied  the 
report  with  emphasis,  and  Conness  of  California,  on 
behalf  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  rather  resented  the  idea 
conveyed  by  Howe  that  that  distinguished  citizen  needed 
any  protection  which  might  be  afforded  by  the  amend 
ment.  "I  take  it,"  he  said,  "that  it  is  scarcely  neces 
sary  to  be  said  here,  or  necessary  to  be  said  anywhere, 
to  those  who  know  him  or  know  his  character,  that  he 
would  be  the  last  man  to  seek  or  wish  protection  to  him 
self  in  that  or  in  any  other  place."  Howe,  protesting 
that  the  Secretary  of  War  '  *  had  no  idea  the  amendment 
was  to  be  offered, ' '  added :  "  I  should  think  the  Congress 
of  the  United  States  assumed  a  grave  responsibility  if, 
knowing  that  there  was  a  probability  of  his  being  re- 

s  *  (Hole,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  542-4. 


THE    TENURE-OF-OFFICE    ACT  193 

moved,  they  allowed  it  to  be  done  when  they  could  pre 
vent  it. ' '  When  the  Senate  came  to  a  vote  upon  Howe 's 
motion  Stanton  was  left  to  the  tender  mercies  of  the 
President  by  a  vote  of  yeas  13  (all  regular  Republicans) 
to  nays  27  (of  whom  16  were  regulaT  Republicans). 
During  the  course  of  the  debate  there  had  been  added 
certain  penal  sections— making  appointments  and  re 
movals  in  violation  of  the  act,  the  acceptance  of  any 
such  appointments,  and  the  disbursement  of  any  money 
from  the  treasury  to  any  person  so  appointed,  "high 
misdemeanors ' '  punishable  by  a  fine  not  exceeding  $10,- 
000  or  imprisonment  not  exceeding  five  years  or  both: 
evidently  with  an  eye  to  the  impeachment  clause  of  the 
Constitution.  With  this  addition,  the  bill  now  passed 
the  Senate  substantially  in  the  shape  it  came  from  the 
committee,  f 

The  House  labouring  at  this  time  desperately  over  the 
reconstruction  measures,  the  Senate  bill  could  not  be 
taken  up  until  the  first  of  February.  By  that  day  a 
change  had  come  over  the  minds  of  many  of  the  major 
ity  leaders  upon  the  question  of  the  tenure  of  Cabinet 
officers.  Since  the  twelfth  of  December,  when  the  prop 
osition  to  make  his  confidential  advisers  independent  of 
the  President  was  defeated  in  the  House,  many  things 
had  happened.  The  negro  suffrage  bill  for  the  District 
had  been  vetoed.  Rumours  were  abroad  that  since  that 
veto  trouble  had  arisen  in  the  Cabinet  where  Stanton  at 
last  was  showing  his  hand.  Military  rule  over  the  unre 
constructed  South  was  seen  to  be  coming  and  the  great 

*  dole,  2d  Sess.  30th  Cong.,  pp.  547-8. 
t  Id.,  pp.  405,  550. 

13 


194  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

War-Minister  must  be  fixed  in  his  place.  Accordingly, 
a  motion  was  made  to  strike  out  the  questionable  excep 
tion,  and  a  member  who  had  voted  against  the  motion 
before  now  openly  supported  it  on  the  floor.  On  the  first 
trial,  indeed,  the  motion  was  lost  by  almost  the  same  vote 
(76  to  78)  ;  but  the  leading  Republicans  were  all  now  in 
the  affirmative.  The  next  day  the  motion  was  recon 
sidered,  the  exception  was  stricken  out  by  a  vote  of  82 
to  63;  and  with  this  single  amendment  the  bill  was 
passed.* 

The  new  stand  taken  by  the  House  forced  a  renewal 
of  the  contest  in  the  Senate,  where  Edmunds  moved  to 
disagree  and  request  a  conference.  Howe  came  forward 
as  the  champion  of  the  House  amendment,  contending 
that  the  power  of  removal  was  not  vested  in  the  Presi 
dent  at  all  but  in  the  Court  of  Impeachment;  an.d  ar 
raigning  the  first  Congress  for  passing  what  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  call  ' i  a  dishonest  statute, "  "  a  cowardly  and 
skulking  statute."  Reverdy  Johnson  predicted  that,  if 
the  amendment  passed,  the  first  Congress  after  the  next 
presidential  election,  if  it  contain  a  majority  in  each 
branch  friendly  to  the  President  elected,  will  repeal  it- 
a  prophecy  substantially  fulfilled.  But  Sherman  it  was 
who  opposed  the  amendment  with  the  greatest  vigour: 

"It  is  a  question  with  me,"  he  said,  "not  of  constitu 
tional  law  but  a  question  of  propriety."  "Suppose  that 
some  Cabinet  minister  under  the  old  Administration  should 
hang  on  to  his  office.  It  is  hardly  a  probable  supposition, 
I  admit,  because  I  do  not  see  how  any  gentleman  could  do  it, 
or  how  any  man  could  hold  an  office  of  that  kind  against 
*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  937,  943-4,  970. 


THE    TENURE-OF-OFFICE    ACT  195 

the  will  of  his  chief;  yet  if  we  adopt  the  amendment  .  .  . 
we  compel  the  President  to  retain  in  office  .  .  .  any  man 
who  has  not  courtesy  enough  to  retire." 

"I  would  as  soon  think  of  imposing  upon  the  President 
a  Private  Secretary  with  whom  he  had  no  kindly  relations, 
personal  and  political,  as  to  impose  upon  him  a  Cabinet 
minister  with  whom  his  relations  were  not  kind." 

"Any  gentleman  fit  to  be  a  Cabinet  minister,  who  receives 
an  intimation  from  his  chief  that  his  longer  continuance  in 
that  office  is  unpleasant  to  him,  would  necessarily  resign. 
If  he  did  not  resign  it  would  show  he  was  unfit  to  be  there. 
I  cannot  imagine  a  case  where  a  Cabinet  officer,  would  hold 
on  to  his  place  in  defiance  and  against  the  wishes  of  his 
chief;  and  if  such  a  case  should  occur  I  certainly  would 
not  by  any  extraordinary  or  ordinary  legislation  protect 
him  in  that  office."* 

The  Senate  remained  firm,  refusing  to  concur  by  a 
vote  of  yeas  17,  nays  28.  The  House,  insisting  upon  its 
amendment,  appointed  its  committee  of  conference 
(Sclienck,  Williams  and  Wilson)  :  to  which  the  Senate 
responded  by  the  appointment  of  Williams,  Sherman 
and  Buckalew.  On  the  evening  of  the  eighteenth  a  re 
port  was  made,  signed  by  Williams  and  Sherman  on  the 
part  of  the  Senate  and  all  the  conferees  on  the  part  of 
the  House,  by  which  the  exception  was  stricken  out, 
and  a  proviso  substituted  that  Cabinet  officers  "  shall 
hold  their  offices  respectively  for  and  during  the  term  of 
the  President  by  whom  they  may  have  been  appointed, 
and  for  one  month  thereafter,  subject  to  removal  by  and 
with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate."  The 
majority  of  the  House  in  adopting  the  report  evidently 

*  Glolc,  2tl  Sess.  30th  Cong.,  pp.  1039-40.  1043,  1046. 


196  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

considered  that  they  had  gained  a  victory  and  congratu 
lated  themselves  that  their  favourite  minister  was  safe. 
Schenck,  after  stating  the  terms  of  the  proviso,  ex 
plained  :  "It  is,  in  fact,  an  acceptance  by  the  Senate  of 
the  position  taken  by  the  House."  Its  language  was 
scanned  with  no  particular  scrutiny  and  its  precise  sig 
nificance  passed  unperceived.  It  was  not  so  in  the  Sen 
ate.  When  first  read,  the  report  was  considered  an 
abandonment  of  the  position  of  the  Senate  by  its  con 
ferees  whose  concurrence  aroused  much  indignation. 
Their  explanation,  however,  cleared  up  the  matter.  Wil 
liams  stated  that  the  proviso  left  an  incoming  President 
free  to  select  his  own  Cabinet  and  gave  him  a  month  to 
do  it  in,  adding  that  he  thought  the  question  immaterial, 
for: 

"I  have  no  doubt  that  any  Cabinet  minister  Avho  has  a 
particle  of  self  respect— and  we  can  hardly  suppose  that 
any  man  would  occupy  so  responsible  a  position  without 
having  that  feeling— would  decline  to  remain  in  the  Cabinet 
after  the  President  had  signified  to  him  that  his  presence 
was  no  longer  needed.  As  a  matter  of  course,  the  effect  of 
the  provision  will  amount  to  very  little  one  way  or  the 
other;  for  I  presume  that  whenever  the  President  sees 
proper  to  rid  himself  of  an  offensive  or  disagreeable  Cabinet 
minister,  he  will  only  have  to  signify  that  desire  and  the 
minister  will  retire." 

Hendricks,  on  the  other  hand,  took  a  different  view : 

"A  mean  man  getting  into  the  Cabinet  would  say,  if  the 
President  desired  him  to  leave,  'Congress  has  said  I  may 
stay ;  therefore  I  will  stay. '  The  very  person  who  ought  to 
be  turned  out  is  the  very  person  who  will  stay  in.  A  gen 
tleman,  of  course,  would  not." 
*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  p.  1340  House,  p.  1514  Sen. 


THE    TENURE-OF-OFFICE    ACT  197 

Sherman's  remarks  are  especially  noteworthy.  He 
apologized  to  the  Senate  for  agreeing  to  the  report, 
saying  that  he  had  done  so  "with  a  good  deal  of  re 
luctance/'  but,  he  plead,  the  House  conferees  were 
1  i  very  tenacious ' '  and  ' l  the  general  purpose  of  the  bill 
is  so  very  important"  that  he  thought  "it  ought  not  to 
be  endangered  by  a  dispute  on  a  collateral  question." 
He  proceeded :  "  I  think  that  no  gentleman,  no  man  with 
any  sense  of  honor,  would  hold  a  position  of  Cabinet 
officer  after  his  chief  desired  his  removal,  and  therefore 
the  slightest  intimation  on  the  part  of  the  President 
would  always  secure  the  resignation  of  a  Cabinet  of 
ficer." 

Doolittle  struck  the  heart  of  the  matter : 

"I  desire  to  look  into  this  most  marvelous  production  of 
this  committee  of  conference,  which  has  utterly  failed  to 
accomplish  the  very  thing  which  they  design  by  the  terms 
of  the  bill  and  the  language  which  they  use.  I  suppose  it 
is  aimed  at  the  present  head  of  the  Executive  Department, 
to  bind  him  to  keep  certain  members  of  his  Cabinet,  for  it 
was  openly  avowed  in  the  discussion  of  this  bill  when  it  was 
up  before  that  it  would  be  intolerable  to  allow  the  present 
Executive  Magistrate  to  have  the  power  of  removal  over 
certain  members  of  the  Cabinet  mentioned  by  name.  Now, 
this  project  does  not  reach  those  members  at  all." 

He  then  read  the  proviso,  and  continued : 

"Now,  let  us  look  at  the  facts.  The  Secretary  of  War 
was  appointed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  during  his  first  term ;  he 
never  has  been  appointed  since.  .  .  .  Mr.  Lincoln  gave  him 
no  appointment  during  his  second  term,  and  he  held  over. 
Mr.  Johnson  has  given  him  no  appointment,  but  he  has 


198  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

held  over.  So  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy,  and  so  of  the 
Secretary  of  State.  The  Secretary  of  the  Interior,  to  be 
sure,  and  the  Postmaster-General  and  the  Attorney-General 
have  been  appointed  by  Mr.  Johnson  since  the  presidential 
office  devolved  on  him ;  and  by  the  terms  of  this  law  the  Sec 
retary  of  the  Interior,  the  Postmaster-General  and  the 
Attorney-General  must  remain  during  Mr.  Johnson 's  term ; 
but  the  Secretary  of  State,  the  Secretary  of  War,  and  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy,  according  to  the  terms  of  this  pro 
vision,  may  be  removed  by  him  to-morrow." 

Not  a  single  senator  questioned  the  correctness  of  this 
construction.  Sherman  denied  with  much  heat  that  the 
conference  committee  had  any  such  purpose  as  that 
attributed  to  it  by  Doolittle: 

' '  I  say  that  the  Senate  have  not  legislated  with  a  view 
to  any  persons  or  to  any  President,  and  therefore  he 
(Doolittle)  commences  by  saying  what  is  not  true.  We 
do  not  legislate  in  order  to  keep  in  the  Secretary  of  War, 
the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  or  the  Secretary  of  State. ' ' 

Doolittle  here  interrupted,  saying  he  heard  in  the  de 
bate  "that  it  was  not  to  be  tolerated  that  the  present 
Chief  Magistrate  should  have  the  power  to  remove  the 
Secretary  of  War,  by  name. ' ' 

Sherman  thereupon  admitted  that  * '  some  Senator  may 
have  had  that  purpose. ' '  But,  he  continued : 

"That  the  Senate  had  no  such  purpose  is  shown  by  its 
vote  twice  to  make  the  exception.  That  this  provision  does 
not  apply  to  the  present  case  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  its 
language  is  so  framed  as  not  to  apply  to  the  present  Presi 
dent.  The  Senator  shows  that  himself,  and  argues  tr.uly 
that  it  would  not  prevent  the  present  President  from 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  199 

removing  the  Secretary  of  AVar,  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy 
and  the  Secretary  of  State.  And  if  I  supposed  that  either 
of  these  gentlemen  was  so  wanting  in  manhood,  in  honor, 
as  to  hold  his  place  after  the  politest  intimation  by  the 
President  of  the  United  States  that  his  services  were  no 
longer  needed,  I  certainly,  as  a  Senator,  would  consent  to 
his  removal  at  any  time,  and  so  would  we  all." 

With  this  construction  so  unanimously  put  upon  the 
proviso,  the  conference  report  was  adopted  (Monday, 
February  18),  and  the  bill  sent  to  the  President.* 

Two  days  afterwards  followed  in  the  same  direction 
the  other  of  the  two  main  measures  thought  necessary,  as 
we  have  said,  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  task  under 
taken  by  the  majority.  Not  so  intimately  connected  with 
the  subject  of  this  work  as  the  Tenure-of -office  act,  the 
Reconstruction  act,  its  provisions  and  the  history  of  its 
X^assage  call  for  but  a  brief  exposition.  On  the  sixth  of 
February,  the  joint  committee  reported  a  bill  which, 
after  wiping  out  i '  the  pretended  state  governments ' '  of 
the  ten  still  excluded  states,  divided  these  "so-called 
states"  into  five  military  districts— Virginia,  the  first; 
North  and  South  Carolina,  the  second;  Georgia,  Ala 
bama  and  Florida,  the  third ;  Mississippi  and  Arkansas, 
the  fourth ;  and  Louisiana  and  Texas,  the  fifth— each  to 
be  commanded  by  an  officer  of  the  Army,  not  below  the 
rank  of  brigadier-general,  with  unlimited  powers,  and 
each  to  be  assigned  by  the  General  of  the  Army.  This 
bill,  but  not  without  a  serious  struggle,  passed  the  House 
on  the  thirteenth.  A  substitute  was  adopted  by  the  Sen 
ate  differing  from  the  original  in  these  respects :  I.  The 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  1515-18. 


200  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT   JOHNSON 

governments  of  the  ten  states  were  styled  "not  legal" 
instead  of  ' i  pretended. ' '  II.  The  President  was  to  desig 
nate  the  military  commanders,  not  the  General  of  the 
Army.  III.  A  section  was  added  enumerating  the  suc 
cessive  steps  required  to  be  taken  before  any  of  the  ten 
states  could  escape  the  yoke  of  military  rule  and  regain 
their  place  in  the  Union,  as  follows :  1.  The  fourteenth 
amendment  must  have  become  a  part  of  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States.  2.  A  constitution  for  the  state 
must  be  framed  by  a  convention  of  delegates  chosen  by 
all  the  adult  male  citizens  without  distinction  of  colour, 
excepting  those  disfranchised  for  rebellion  or  felony; 
and  this  constitution  must  guarantee  manhood  suffrage 
to  the  negro  but  might  disfranchise  the  white  .man  for 
participation  in  rebellion.  3.  The  constitution  must  be 
submitted  to  the  same  class  of  voters  for  ratification. 
4.  If  ratified  by  a  majority  it  must  be  submitted  to  Con 
gress  for  examination.  5.  If  approved  by  Congress,  the 
state  must  then  assent  to  the  fourteenth  amendment, 
with  its  section,  in  effect,  making  ineligible  to  all  omces, 
state  or  federal,  the  leaders  of  the  Southern  people.  6. 
The  senators  and  representatives  from  these  states  must 
be  competent  to  take  the  "iron-clad"  oath. 

The  majority  being  in  favor  of  military  rule,  pure  and 
simple,  and  opposed  to  pointing  out  as  yet  to  "the  pre 
tended  states ' '  any  way  of  escape,  the  House  refused  to 
concur;  the  Senate  insisted  upon  its  substitute  and  de 
clined  a  conference.  The  whole  measure  being  put  in 
jeopardy  by  this  disagreement,  the  House  reluctantly 
accepted  the  mitigating  section,  adding  two  amend 
ments,  however,  that  made  its  conditions  still  more 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  201 

stringent,  viz:  1.  A  proviso  that  "no  person  excluded 
from  the  privilege  of  holding  office  by  the  proposed 
fourteenth  amendment  shall  be  eligible  as  a  member  of 
the  convention  to  frame  a  constitution  for  any  of  the 
rebel  States,  nor  shall  any  such  person  vote  for  members 
of  such  convention."  2.  An  amendment  declaring  that 
any  civil  governments  existing  in  the  ten  states  until 
they  are  admitted  into  the  Congress  are  provisional  only, 
and  liable* to  abolition,  supersession  or  revision  at  any 
moment  by  the  United  States ;  but  that,  in  the  meantime, 
in  all  elections  carried  on  under  these  governments  no 
person  should  vote  and  no  person  should  hold  office  ex 
cept  as  provided  in  the  present  bill.  The  Senate  finally 
agreed  to  the  House  amendments,  thereby  passing  the 
bill.* 

The  House  might  not  have  concurred  in  the  Senate 
amendment  giving  the  President,  instead  of  the  General 
of  the  Army,  power  to  designate  the  military  com 
manders,  had  not  that  body  incorporated  into  the  army 
appropriation  bill  a  section  fixing  the  headquarters  of 
the  General  of  the  Army  at  Washington  and  providing 
that  all  orders  issued  by  the  President  relating  to  mili 
tary  operations  must  be  issued  through  that  officer ;  fur 
ther,  that  "the  General  of  the  Army  shall  not  be  re 
moved,  suspended  or  relieved  from  command  or  assigned 
to  duty  elsewhere,  without  the  previous  approval  of  the 
Senate " ;  all  orders  contrary  to  this  section  were  made 
void,  the  officer  issuing  them  declared  guilty  of  a  misde 
meanour,  and  any  officer  of  the  army  transmitting  them 
made  subject  to  imprisonment.  A  more  palpable  viola- 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong.,  pp.  1037,  1215,  1459,  1469,  1340,  1570, 
1399-1400,  1045. 


202    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

tion  of  the  Constitution  could  not  be  imagined.  It  was 
an  attempt  to  make  a  subordinate  independent  of  his 
superior  officer,  to  circumscribe  the  powers  of  the  officer 
expressly  made  commander-in-chief  of  the  army  by  the 
Constitution,  and  actually  to  associate  the  Senate  with 
that  officer  in  the  command  of  the  army.  And  yet  the 
section  received  the  vote  of  every  Republican  senator 
present,  Henderson  excepted.  The  bill  containing  this 
attack  on  his  prerogative  reached  the  President  at  so  late 
a  date  that  he  might  have  prevented  its  becoming  a  law 
by  withholding  his  signature.  But,  rather  than  defeat 
the  appropriations  for  the  pay  of  the  soldiers,  he  felt 
constrained  to  sign  it,  accompanying  his  signature,  how 
ever,  with  a  protest  against  the  section  "as  depriving 
the  President  of  his  constitutional  functions  as  Com- 
mander-in-Chief  of  the  Army,'7  and  "out  of  place  in 
an  appropriation  bill. ' ' 

When  the  Tenure-of -office  bill  reached  the  Presidenty 
he  laid  it  before  his  Cabinet,  every  member  of  which 
pronounced  it  unconstitutional;  and  none  with  more 
emphasis  than  the  Secretary  of  War.  The  point  being 
mooted,  it  was  taken  for  granted,  without  dissent,  that 
neither  Stanton,  nor  any  other  member  appointed  by 
Lincoln,  was  within  the  bill.  The  President  was  so 
much  struck  by  the  full  mastery  of  the  constitutional 

*  Mr.  Boutwell  takes  pride  in  claiming  the  honour  of  having  drafted 
this  section  under  the  dictation  of  Stanton,  as  far  back  as  the  first  of 
December,  1866,  to  circumvent  some  black  design  of  the  President 
which  was  troubling  their  patriotic  imaginations.  Art.  by  Boutwell  in 
North  Amer.  Rev.,  December,  1885;  repeated  in  art.  in  McClure's  Mag., 
December,  1899.  For  history  of  section  see  Globe,  2d  Sess.  39th  Cong., 
pp.  1013,  1351-2,  1353-6,  1404  House,  pp.  1851-5  Senate.  Message  in 
McPh.  Recon.,  p.  178. 


ve 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  203 

question  displayed  by  Stanton  that  he  requested  the 
Secretary  of  War  to  prepare  the  veto  message.  That 
officer,  pleading  physical  disability,  declined  to  undergo 
the  labour  of  writing,  but  declared  his  readiness  to  aid  in 
the  preparation  of  the  paper.  The  message  was  in  fact 
composed  by  Seward  with  the  assistance  of  Stanton.  It 
was  a  calm  and  thorough  review  of  the  proceedings  and 
decision  of  the  first  Congress  and  of  the  series  of  pre 
cedents  in  all  the  departments  of  the  government  follow 
ing  that  decision  ever  since;  but  it  did  not  delay  for  a 
moment  the  passage  of  the  bill  over  the  veto.* 

The  Reconstruction  bill,  the  President  might  have  de 
feated  by  simply  putting  it  in  his  pocket,  but,  contrary 
to  the  expectations  of  his  enemies,  he  took  no  advantage 
of  the  opportunity,  but  sent  his  veto  to  the  House  at 
the  same  time  he  sent  his  veto  of  the  Tenure  bill  to  the 
Senate.  On  hearing  the  message  read  the  House  was  in 
no  humour  to  appreciate  this  magnanimous  forbearance 
of  its  author.  To  the  majority,  in  premises,  in  argu 
ment,  in  conclusion  and  in  tone,  it  was  nothing  less  than 
an  impeachable  offence.  Every  paragraph  constituted  a 
high  misdemeanour.  We  owe  to  the  Impeachment  Trial 
the  information  that  the  veto  message  on  the  Tenure 
bill  was  written  by  Seward  aided  by  Stanton.  We  owe 
to  the  Impeachment  committee  that  extorted  the  item 
from  the  lips  of  the  writer,  the  information  that  the 
veto  message  on  the  Reconstruction  bill  was  first  written 
by  Jeremiah  S.  Black  and  then  thoroughly  revised  by 
Andrew  Johnson.  Black  was  one  of  the  profoundest 

*  President's  Message  to  Senate  on  Stantonis  suspension  in  Trial,  Vol. 
1,  pp.  148,  150-1.  Offer  of  testimony,  id.,  p.  676. 


204    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

and  at  the  same  time  one  of  the  acutest  lawyers  of  his 
generation ;  and,  besides,  he  was  one  of  the  most  brilliant 
advocates — brilliant  before  a  jury  and  brilliant  before 
the  full  bench.  He  had  been  a  great  judge  as  well  as  a 
great  lawyer,  and  at  a  perilous  crisis  he  showed  his 
mettle  as  a  statesman  when  Attorney-General  and  Secre 
tary  of  State  under  President  Buchanan.  But,  great  as 
he  was  as  a  lawyer,  judge  and  statesman,  as  a  con 
troversial  writer  he  was  greatest.  In  this  field,  his  habit 
of  driving  home  a  proposition,  ill-conceived  and  half- 
comprehended  by  the  average  man,  by  a  seeming  audac 
ity  in  its  statement  became  of  marvellous  service.  The 
ease  with  which  the  clear-cut  sentences  grow  out  of  each 
other  and,  finally,  with  an  epigrammatic  clinch  culmi 
nate  in  what  one  rejoices  over  as  an  absolutely  demon 
strated  truth,  has  the  effect  of  humour.  The  complete 
ness  of  his  refutation  of  an  opposing  argument  by  a 
single  wave  of  his  pen  has  the  effect  of  wit.  Compassion 
over  the  decapitation  of  an  adversary  is  swallowed  up 
in  admiration  at  the  deftness  of  the  stroke.  His  epithets 
are  photographic.  His  sarcasms  are  syllogistic.  His 
invectives  carry  with  them  the  force  of  the  intuitive 
reason.  His  logic  is  so  severely  perfect  that  it  becomes 
rhetoric  raised  to  the  highest  power.  The  Reconstruc 
tion  bill,  which  could  not  but  be  regarded  by  Black  as 
a  double-headed  monstrosity  holding  the  unsheathed 
sword  over  the  prostrate  South  with  one  hand  and 
offering  her  the  two-fold  curse  of  negro  enfranchise 
ment  and  white  disfranchisement  with  the  other,  was 
an  object  well-fitted  to  call  out  to  the  utmost  the  power 
of  his  unrivaled  pen.  But,  as  he  testified  before  the  com- 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  205 

mittee,  if  the  President  had  signed  what  he  wrote,  the 
message  "would  have  been  a  much  more  objectionable 
document  to  the  majority  in  Congress  than  it  is";  "it  is 
all  toned  down  from  much  stronger  expressions  in  the 
same  direction  into  something  considerably  tamer." 
So  that  we  have  not  before  us  the  pure  product  of  that 
"most  miraculous  organ."  We  confess  we  should  like 
to  have  seen  the  document  before  the  toning  down  proc 
ess  began. 

But  the  actual  message  is  not  what  the  reader  would 
call  tame.    Here  are  one  or  two  specimens : 

"The  power  thus  given  to  the  commanding  officer  over  all 
the  people  of  each  district  is  that  of  an  absolute  monarch. 
His  mere  will  is  to  take  the  place  of  law.  .  .  .  '  "Being 
bound  by  no  State  law,  and  there  being  no  other  law  to  reg 
ulate  the  subject,  he  may  make  a  criminal  code  of  his  own ; 
he  can  make  it  as  bloody  as  any  recorded  in  History,  or  he 
can  reserve  the  privilege  of  acting  upon  the  impulse  of  his 
private  passions  in  each  case  that  arises.  He  is  bound  by 
no  rules  of  evidence ;  there  is  indeed  no  provision  by  which 
he  is  authorized  or  required  to  take  any  evidence  at  all. 
Everything  is  a  crime  which  he  chooses  to  call  so,  and  all 
persons  are  condemned  whom  he  pronounces  to  be  guilty. 
He  is  not  bound  to  keep  any  record  or  make  any  report  of  his 
proceedings.  He  may  arrest  his  victims  wherever,  he  finds 
them,  without  warrant,  accusation,  or  proof  of  probable 
cause.  If  he  gives  them  a  trial  before  he  inflicts  the  pun 
ishment,  he  gives  it  of  his  grace  and  mercy,  not  because  he 
is  commanded  so  to  do." 

"Such  a  power  has  not  been  wielded  by  any  monarch  in 
England  for  more  than  five  hundred  years.  In  all  that 
*  Imp.  Inv.,  p.  271. 


206    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

time  no  people  who  speak  the  English  language  have  borne 
such  servitude.  It  reduces  the  whole  population  of  the  ten 
States— all  persons  of  every  color,  sex,  and  condition,  and 
every  stranger  within  their  limits— to  the  most  abject  and 
degrading  slavery.  No  master  ever  had  a  control  so  abso 
lute  over  his  slave  as  this  bill  gives  to  the  military  officers 
over  both  white  and  colored  persons."  "The  head  of  a 
great  empire  has  sometimes  governed  it  with  a  mild  and 
paternal  sway ;  but  the  kindness  of  an  irresponsible  deputy 
never  yields  what  the  law  does  not  extort  from  him. 
Between  such  a  master,  and  the  people  subjected  to  his 
domination  there  can  be  nothing  but  enmity;  he  punishes 
them  if  they  resist  his  authority;  and  if  they  submit  to  it 
he  hates  them  for  their  servility." 

"Here  is  a  bill  of  attainder  against  nine  millions  people 
at  once.  It  is  based  upon  an  accusation  so  vague  as  to  be 
scarcely  intelligible,  and  found  to  be  true  upon  no  credible 
evidence.  Not  one  of  the  nine  millions  was  heard  in  his  own 
defence.  The  representatives  of  the  doomed  parties  were 
excluded  from  all  participation  in  the  trial.  The  conviction 
is  to  be  followed  by  the  most  ignominious  punishment  ever 
inflicted  on  large  masses  of  men.  It  disfranchises  them  by 
hundreds  of  thousands,  and  degrades  them  all— even  those 
who  are  admitted  to  be  guiltless — from  the  rank  of  freemen 
to  the  condition  of  slaves." 

"The  bill  says  to  them,  take  martial  law  first,  then  delib 
erate.  And  when  they  have  done  all  that  this  measure 
requires  them  to  do,  other  conditions  and  contingencies, 
over  which  they  have  no  control,  yet  remain  to  be  fulfilled 
before  they  can  be  relieved  from  martial  law.  Another 
Congress  must  first  approve  the  constitutions  made  in  con 
formity  with  the  will  of  this  Congress,  and  must  declare 
these  States  entitled  to  representation  in  both  Houses.  The 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION   ACT  207 

whole  question  thus  remains  open  and  unsettled,  and  must 
again  occupy  the  attention  of  Congress,  and  in  the  mean 
time  the  agitation  which  now  prevails  will  continue  to 
disturb  all  portions  of  the  people."* 

The  House  lost  not  a  moment  in  passing  the  bill  over 
the  veto,  and  the  Senate  followed  its  example. 

"With  the  passage  of  this  act  the  work  of  the  Thirty- 
ninth  Congress  was  done.  Yet  it  seemed  loth  to  die.  It 
kept  its  eye  on  the  President  up  to  the  moment  when  the 
eye  of  its  successor  took  in  the  object  of  its  watch.  Its 
hand  relaxed  not  from  the  reins  until  another  hand 
caught  them  up.  As  minute  by  minute  it  faded  from 
view,  minute  by  minute  the  Fortieth  Congress  more  and 
more  distinctly  appeared.  The  stroke  of  the  gavel 
knelling  the  expiration  of  the  one  was  echoed  by  the 
stroke  of  the  gavel  calling  the  other  to  order. 

"The  King  is  dead!     Long  live  the  King!" 


Every  change  in  the  personnel  of  the  new  Congress 
was  favourable  to  the  radical  wing.  In  the  Senate, 
Cowan  gave  place  to  Cameron,  thereby  reducing  the 
Johnson  Republicans  to  four;  the  Democrats  lost  two 
senators  (McDougall  and  Nesmith)  reducing  their  num 
ber  to  seven,  of  whom  but  two  came  from  states  north 
of  Mason's  and  Dixon's  line  (Buckalew  and  Hendricks). 
As  for  the  regular  Republicans,  Conkling  displaced  the 
too  cautious  Harris ;  Ferry,  the  too  conservative  Foster ; 
Drake,  one  of  Missouri's  fiercest  radicals,  Brown;  Har- 

*  Message  in  McPh.  Recon.,  p.  1G6  et  scq. 


208   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Ian,  late  of  the  Cabinet,  came  back;  Merrill  (of  Ver 
mont),  who  was  in  the  last  House,  changed  places  with 
Poland,  and  Oliver  P.  Morton  of  Indiana  succeeded 
Lane.  The  two  senators  of  the  new  state  of  Nebraska— 
"men  of  the  right  sort"  as  Wade  certified  them  to  be— 
swelled  the  numbers  of  the  majority  to  forty-two ;  there 
being  one  vacancy  caused  by  the  retirement  of  Cresswell 
of  Maryland,  this  figure  exceeded  three-fourths  of  the 
present  membership.  In  the  House  the  changes  were 
not  so  conspicuous.  The  same  Republican  leaders  were 
there,  but  the  Johnson  tcrtium  quid  was  about  elimi 
nated.  One  new  face  there  was — a  face,  once  seen,  not 
to  be  forgotten.  The  broad  forehead  shelving  up  to  the 
top  of  the  bald  crown,  the  fringe  of  thin  hair  encircling 
the  lower  head,  the  eyes  asquint  and  half-hidden  by 
pointed  lids,  the  sharp  nose  with  its  nervous  sniff,  the 
spasmodic  puffing  out  of  the  cheeks,  the  turned-down 
collar  exposing  the  wide  throat,  and  the  right  hand 
uplifted  in  the  attitude  of  affirming  without  book;— 
these  striking  peculiarities  betokened  the  presence  of 
Benjamin  F.  Butler.  His  appearance  on  the  floor  meant 
business.  Advocate,  party-leader,  warrior,  apostle  of 
an  idea,  representative;  whatever  part  he  essayed,  he 
was  at  all  times  and  above  all  the  politician ;  and,  though 
resembling  the  Mansf eldts  of  the  Thirty  Years '  War  in 
the  number  and  suddenness  of  his  changes  of  flag,  for 
the  time  being  he  was  the  most  devoted  of  partisans. 
Nothing  gave  him  pause.  He  was  radical  by  nature, 
in  the  etymological  sense  of  the  term.  Radical  in  his 
Democracy,  he  supported  Jefferson  Davis  rather  than 
Douglas.  Radical  as  a  military  commander,  he  solved 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  209 


' ' 


the  fugitive-slave  problem  by  the  word  "contraband. 
Radical  in  his  new-born  Republicanism,  he  demanded 
the  summary  impeachment  of  Andrew  Johnson,  his  sus 
pension  during  trial  and  his  speedy  removal.  For  this 
cause  alone,  it  may  be  said,  he  had  joined  the  impeach 
ing  body ;  and,  in  the  earnestness  with  which  he  pushed 
forward  the  prosecution,  he  was  to  contest  the  palm  of 
leadership  with  Stevens,  to  oust  Ashley  from  his  self- 
chosen  perch,  and  in  the  culminating  scene  become  the 
protagonist  of  the  drama.  The  people  at  large  were 
growing  sick  of  this  threatened  removal  of  their  chief 
magistrate  so  long  hanging  over  them.  The  finances  of 
the  country  were  being  seriously  affected ;  industry  was 
partially  paralyzed ;  there  was  a  constant  uneasiness  in 
commercial  circles  as  though  revolution  were  imminent. 
The  lame  conclusion  to  which  the  committee  of  the  last 
House  had  come  strengthened  the  spreading  belief  that 
the  whole  movement  was  fatuous  as  well  as  futile.  This 
state  of  feeling  more  or  less  influenced  the  new  House, 
and  many  a  member  of  the  majority  would  have  secretly 
rejoiced  to  hear  that  the  wild  scheme  beginning  to  play 
havoc  with  the  party  had  been  dropped.  Such  men, 
however,  were  silent,  for  the  most  part,  while  the  leaders 
of  the  movement  were  loud  in  their  assertion  of  the 
necessity  of  getting  rid  of  the  renegade  of  the  White 
House. 

On  the  third  day  of  the  session,  a  resolution  was  in 
troduced  to  continue  the  investigation  during  the  session 
and  the  recess.  Ashley,  feeling  the  growing  luke-warm- 
ness  towards  his  cherished  hobby,  hi  his  speech  in  sup 
port  of  the  motion,  more  than  insinuated  that  Johnson 

14 


210    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

was  privy  to  the  assassination  of  his  predecessor.  l '  lie 
came  into  the  Presidency  through  the  door  of  assassi 
nation,"  he  said.  He  alluded  to  "the  dark  suspicion 
which  crept  over  the  minds  of  men  as  to  his  complicity 
in  the  assassination  plot, ' '  and  l  i  the  mysterious  connec 
tion  between  death  and  treachery  which  this  case  pre 
sents."  He  called  upon  the  people  "to  declare  that  no 
man  hereafter  elected  President  or  Vice  President  shall 
present  himself  at  his  inauguration  drunk ;  that  no  Pres 
ident  shall  be  permitted  to  turn  the  AVhite  House  into  a 
den  of  thieves  and  pardon-brokers ;  nor  shall  he  be  per 
mitted  to  address  in  vulgar,  seditious  language  a 
drunken,  howling  mob  from  the  steps  of  the  Executive 
Mansion";  to  protest  against  "another  drunken  elec 
tioneering  tour,  such  as  last  year."  "The  Nation  cried 
out  in  its  agony  to  Congress  to  deliver  them  from  the 
shame  and  disgrace  the  acting  President  has  brought 
upon  them.  They  demand  that  the  loathing*  incubus 
which  has  blotted  our  country 's  history  with  the  foulest 
blot  shall  be  removed."  And  he  concluded  by  giving 
public  notice  to  "citizens  and  foreigners"  having  any 
"documents  or  facts  tending  to  show  technically  the 
guilt  of  this  man ' '  to  bring  them  to  the  committee,  warn 
ing  such  persons  that  by  withholding  their  testimony 
they  became  "an  accessory  in  the  crime  of  this  man," 
and  "a  co-partner  in  his  guilt,"  He  transcended  the 
bounds  of  propriety  so  far  as  to  elicit  rebukes  from  his 
political  associates  on  the  floor  and,  finally,  from  the 
Speaker  himself.  So  disgusted  was  one  of  his  Bepubli- 
can  colleagues  that  he  denounced  ' '  the  whole  scheme  of 
impeachment  as  one  of  consummate  folly,"  asserting 

*Sic. 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  211 

that  * '  not  one  act  amounting  to  a  crime  or  misdemeanor 
lias  as  yet  been  proved  against  the  Executive'7  and 
challenging  any  one  to  "reply  to  that  averment. "  He 
said  more.  He  charged  that  "it  was  not  expected  by 
some  that  proof  will  be  obtained  " ;  it  is  enough  that  the 
President  is  an  "obstruction"  and  it  is  the  duty  of  the 
party  to  remove  him  from  office.  This  challenge,  Butler 
instantly  accepted,  declaring  that  "an  absolute  majority 
of  the  whole  House,"  when  the  final  report  is  made, 
"will  be  in  favor  of  the  impeachment  of  Andrew  John 
son";  that  "common  fame,"  "common  report  of  mis 
conduct,"  was  sufficient  proof  in  cases  of  impeachment; 
that  "if  any  man  stands  in  the  way  of  the  great  march 
of  this  country  to  honor,  glory,  peace,  unity,  happiness, 
liberty  and  law, ' '  it  was  enough,  i '  he  must  be  taken  out 
of  the  way. "  On  a  test  vote  to  lay  the  resolution  on  the 
table,  every  Republican  member  voted  in  the  negative 
but  five,  and  they  did  not  vote  at  all.  And  so  the  investi 
gation  was  continued.* 

The  first  session  of  the  fortieth  Congress  lasted  until 
the  thirtieth  of  March,  and  its  chief  business  was  to  sup 
ply  an  omission  in  that  section  of  the  reconstruction  act 
which  prescribed  the  process  by  which  the  excluded 
states  could  escape  from  military  rule  and  regain  their 
places  in  the  Union.  The  process  was  prescribed,  but 
how  the  process  should  be  set  in  motion  was  nowhere 
indicated.  Delegates  to  a  constitutional  convention  were 
to  be  chosen  by  certain  constituencies,  but,  as  to  what 
authority  should  call  the  convention  and  conduct  the 
election,  the  section  was  silent.  This  omission,  there  is 

*  Globe,  1st  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  pp.   18-25. 


212    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

no  doubt,  was  intentional.  It  was  the  design  of  the 
framers  of  the  section  that  the  process  outlined  by  its 
terms  should  not  be  forced  on  unwilling  communities 
but  held  out  to  them  as  a  boon  to  be  accepted  or  not  as 
they  chose,  and,  in  the  absence  of  any  statutory  direc 
tion,  the  presumption  would  prevail  that  the  machinery 
provided  was  to  be  started  by  the  existing  state  authori 
ties  rather  than  by  the  military  commanders.  Moreover, 
many  radicals  in  the  last  Congress,  anticipating  that  the 
South  would  prefer  even  martial  law  to  white  dis- 
f ranchisement  and  negro  enfranchisement,  favoured  the 
omission  because  they  were  not  yet  ready  for  reconstruc 
tion  on  any  basis.  With  Suniner,  they  wanted  time.  The 
majority  in  the  new  Congress,  however,  were  resolved 
that  something  must  be  done  towards  the  restoration  of 
the  Union  without  delay;  and  the  greater  part  of  the 
session  was  spent  in  concocting  a  supplementary  bill 
directing  the  military  commanders,  before  the  first  of 
September,  1867,  to  cause  a  registration  to  be  made  in 
each  county  of  the  states  of  their  respective  districts  of 
persons  qualified  to  vote  under  the  act;  after  registra 
tion,  to  fix  a  day  for  the  election  of  delegates  to  a  con 
stitutional  convention ;  to  appoint  inspectors  of  election 
competent  to  take  the  test  oath ;  and,  after  the  constitu 
tion  was  framed,  to  hold  an  election  for  its  ratification ; 
and,  if  ratified,  to  send  it  to  the  Congress.  The  bill  was 
passed  (Tuesday,  March  19)  with  a  proviso  that  occa 
sioned  more  discussion  than  the  bill  itself  and  was  to 
the  effect  that,  notwithstanding  a  majority  of  the  votes 
cast  were  in  favour  of  holding  a  convention,  no  conven 
tion  should  be  held  unless  the  majority  of  the  registered 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  213 

voters  voted  at  the  election,  either  for  or  against;  and 
that  no  constitution  should  be  deemed  ratified  unless  at 
least  one-half  of  all  the  registered  voters  should  have 
voted  on  the  question.* 

The  interval  of  waiting  for  the  inevitable  veto  was 
enlivened  by  an  episode  which  has  a  distinct  bearing  on 
the  impeachment  proceedings.  The  House  was  in  debate 
over  a  bill  to  aid  destitute  persons  in  the  South  without 
regard  to  their  loyalty  or  disloyalty,  which  John  A. 
Bingham  was  supporting  with  his  customary  enthusi 
asm;  and,  in  so  doing,  inadvertently  wandered  over  to 
the  Democratic  side  of  the  Chamber,  when  Butler,  who 
was  opposed  to  the  bill,  made  the  remark  that  the  gentle 
man  from  Ohio  had  t  i  got  over  on  the  other  side  not  only 
in  body  but  in  spirit."  This  pardonable  hit  stung 
Bingham  (who,  it  should  be  borne  in  mind,  had  distin 
guished  himself  as  the  special  assistant  judge-advocate 
on  the  trial  of  the  alleged  assassins  of  President  Lin 
coln)  to  the  quick,  and  he  charged  rough-shod  upon  the 
General  who,  it  will  be  remembered,  had  not  taken  Fort 
Fisher: 

"I  desire  to  say  that  it  does  not  become  a  gentleman  who 
recorded  his  vote  fifty  times  for  Jefferson  Davis,  the  arch- 
traitor  in  this  rebellion,  as  his  candidate  for  President  of 
the  United  States,  to  undertake  to  damage  this  cause  by 
attempting  to  cast  an  imputation  either  upon  my  integrity 
or  my  honor.  I  repel  with,  scorn  and  contempt  any  utter 
ance  of  that  sort  from  any  man,  whether  he  be  the  hero  of 
Fort  Fisher  not  taken  or  of  Fort  Fisher  taken. ' ' 

*  McPh.  Recon.,  p.  192. 


214    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Butler's  retort  was  admirable  in  tone  and  crushing 
in  effect : 

"I  have  never  concealed,  Mr.  Speaker,  the  fact  which  is 
now  so  offensively  put  forward,  that  before  the  war,  I,  in 
the  convention  of  my  party,  voted  fifty-seven  times  for  Jef 
ferson  Davis  for  President.  I  thought  him. the  representa 
tive  man  of  the  South,  and  I  hoped  by  his  nomination  to 
prevent  threatened  disunion.  I  was  foiled  and  disunion 
came.  The  difference  between  me  and  the  honorable  gen 
tleman  from  .Ohio  is  this :  while  Jefferson  Davis  was  in  the 
Union,  a  Senator,  of  the  United  States,  and  claiming  to  be 
a  friend  of  the  Union,  I  supported  him;  but  he  now  sup 
ports  him  when  he  is  a  traitor.  I  left  him  as  soon  as  he  left 
the  Union." 

"The  gentleman  has  had  the  bad  taste  to  attack  me  for 
the  reason  that  I  could  not  do  any  more  injury  to  the 
enemies  of  my  country.  I  agree  to  that,  I  did  all  I  could, 
the  best  I  could.  Other  men  of  more  ability  could  do 
more;  and  no  man  is  more  ready  to  give  them  the  highest 
plaudits  for  valor  and  discretion  and  conduct  than  I.  And 
because  I  could  not  do  more  I  feel  exceedingly  chagrined; 
but  if  during  the  war  the  gentleman  from  Ohio  did  as  much 
as  I  did  in  that  direction  I  shall  be  glad  to  recognize  that 
much  done.  But  the  only  victim  of  that  gentleman 's  prowess 
that  I  know  of  was  an  innocent  woman  hung  upon  the 
scaffold,  one  Mrs.  Surratt.  And  I  can  sustain  the  memory 
of  Fort  Fisher  if  he  and  his  present  associates  can  sustain 
him  in  shedding  the  blood  of  a  woman  tried  by  a  military 
commission  and  convicted  without  sufficient  evidence  in  my 
judgment." 

The  suddenness  of  this  blow  stunned  Bingham  for  a 
moment.     He  lost  his  self-possession;  his  habitual  flu- 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  215 

ency  deserted  him  so  far  that  he  found  it  necessary 
afterwards  to  revise  his  remarks  for  the  record;  an  in 
dulgence  which  gave  Butler  the  opportunity,  a  few  days 
later,  to  dilate  upon  the  grounds  of  his  charge.  The 
diary  written  by  Booth  during  the  days  of  his  flight, 
which  the  judge-advocates  kept  out  of  sight  before  the 
military  commission  and  which  had  lain  concealed  ever 
since,  the  judiciary  committee  in  conducting  the  im 
peachment  investigation  had  at  length  unearthed.  Sev 
eral  leaves,  the  remains  of  which  bore  evidence  that  the 
missing  pages  had  been  written  on,  were  cut  out;— giv 
ing  rise  to  the  suspicion  that  the  same  hand  that  sup 
pressed  the  book  might  have  mutilated  it  in  fear  of  the 
full  disclosure  of  its  contents.  Butler  now  urged  that 
this  diary,  being  moral  if  not  legal  evidence,  ought  to 
have  been  produced  on  the  trial  for  two  reasons:  1.  It 
proved  that  there  had  been  a  plot  to  abduct  the  Presi 
dent,  changed  only  at  the  last  moment  to  a  plot  to  mur 
der;  and  "if  Mrs.  Surratt  did  not  know  of  the  change 
of  purpose,  there  is  no  evidence  that  she  knew  in  any 
way  of  the  assassination. "  2.  The  country  was  entitled 
to  every  particle  of  evidence  throwing  light  on  the  great 
crime,  in  order  to  be  able  "to  find  who  were  all  the 
accomplices  of  Booth;  to  find  who  it  was  that  changed 
Booth's  purpose  from  capture  to  assassination;  who  it 
was  that  could  profit  by  assassination  who  could  not 
profit  by  capture  and  abduction  of  the  President;  who 
it  was  expected  by  Booth  would  succeed  to  Lincoln  if 
the  knife  made  a  vacancy. "  "Who  spoliated  that 
book ! ' '  he  demanded  with  pointed  significance.  '  *  Who 
suppressed  that  evidence?  Who  caused  an  innocent 


216   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

woman  to  be  hung  when  he  had  in  his  pocket  the  diary 
that  states  at  least  what  was  the  idea  and  purpose  of  the 
main  conspirator  in  the  case  1 ' '  Quoting  what  he  called 
"this  most  remarkable  sentence  written  apparently  but 
a  few  hours  before  Booth  died, "  "  I  have  endeavored  to 
cross  the  Potomac  five  times  and  failed.  I  propose  to 
return  to  Washington  and  give  myself  up,  and  clear  my 
self  from  this  great  crime  " ;  he  continued :  ' '  How  clear 
himself!  By  disclosing  his  accomplices?  Who  were 
they!  Who  spoliated  this  book  after  it  got  into  the 
hands  of  the  Government,  if  it  was  not  spoliated  be 
fore!77  These  questions  Butler  would  have  answered 
by  charging  that  the  book  was  mutilated  to  shield  An 
drew  Johnson,  whom  he  believed  to  have  been  an  accom 
plice  of  Booth's.  "Such  a  charge,"  said  Bingham,  em 
ploying  a  contemptuous  remark  General  Grant  was  re 
ported  to  have  applied  to  General  Butler,  1 1  is  only  fit  to 
come  from  a  man  who  lives  in  a  bottle  and  is  fed  with 
a  spoon." 

The  President  did  not  keep  the  Houses  waiting  long. 
Four  days  after  the  passage  of  the  supplementary  bill 
the  veto  arrived.  One  extract  from  the  message  will 
suffice : 

"When  I  contemplate  the  millions  of  our  fellow  citizens 
of  the  South,  with  no  alternative  left  but  to  impose  upon 
themselves  this  fearful  and  untried  experiment  of  com 
plete  negro  enfranchisement  and  white  enfranchisement, 
it  may  be,  almost  as  complete,  or  submit  indefinitely  to  the 
rigor  of  martial  law,  without  a  single  attribute  of  freemen, 
deprived  of  all  the  sacred  guarantees  of  our  Federal  Con- 
*  Globe,  1st  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  pp.  262-3,  363,  364. 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  217 

stitution,  and  threatened  with  even  worse  wrongs,  if  any 
worse  are  possible,  it  seems  to  me  their  condition  is  the  most 
deplorable  to  which  any  people  can  be  reduced."* 

Senator  Nye  pronounced  this  "one  of  the  strangest 
messages  ever  written. '  'f  The  two  Houses  paid  no  at 
tention  to  it  and  passed  the  bill  over  the  veto  without 
remark. 

The  business  of  the  session  being  concluded,  an  angry 
quarrel  broke  out  among  the  majority  over  the  question 
of  adjournment.  It  began  in  the  House,  when  Elaine 
offered  a  resolution  to  adjourn  on  Tuesday  the  twenty- 
sixth,  to  meet  again  on  Monday,  November  the  eleventh. 
Butler  objected  that  "the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  by 
ordering  this  special  session  said  .  .  .  that  Andrew 
Johnson  was  a  bad  man,  and  that  this  House  and  the 
Senate  should  sit  here  to  take  care  of  his  acts";  and 
that,  above  all,  the  question  of  the  impeachment  should 
not  be  put  off  for  eight  months  longer,  but  should  be 
settled  at  once  one  way  or  the  other.  Blaine  replied  that 
there  was  no  popular  demand  for  impeachment  and  that 
in  the  public  mind  of  the  country  the  question  was  al 
ready  settled.  Stevens  reproached  him  for  the  "grow 
ing  inclination  in  some  quarters M  on  this  subject,  since 
the  election  of  the  president  of  the  Senate,  repeating  a 
declaration  he  remembered  to  have  heard  Blaine  make 
in  the  House  that ' '  there  will  be  no  impeachment  by  this 
Congress ;  we  would  rather  have  the  President  than  the 
shallywags  of  Ben  Wade. ' '  Hot  words  were  exchanged 
between  the  two  members,  Blaine  insisting  that  his  re- 

*McPh.  Recon.,  pp.  178,  180. 
t  Globe,  id.,  p.  353. 


218   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

mark  was  made  in  private  conversation  and  only  to  the 
effect  that  Fessenden  was  the  safer  man  for  President 
of  the  United  States,  and  conveyed  no  slur  upon  Wade ; 
and  Stevens  reiterating,  with  acerbity,  that  the  name  of 
Fessenden  was  not  mentioned,  that  the  declaration  was 
in  the  very  words  he  had  used,  was  made  after  the  elec 
tion  of  the  president  pro  tempore,  and  addressed  gener 
ally  to  the  members  of  the  House.* 

The  fight  was  just  as  bitter  in  the  Senate.  Trumbull 
offered  the  customary  resolution  to  adjourn  the  next 
Tuesday  to  the  first  Monday  in  December — the  time 
fixed  by  the  Constitution.  Drake  moved  to  amend  by 
making  the  day  of  meeting  Tuesday,  the  fifteenth  of 
October,  and  was  voted  down.  Sumner,  then,  moved 
that  the  President  of  the  Senate  and  the  Speaker  of  the 
House,  on  Thursday  next,  adjourn  their  respective 
Houses  until  the  first  Monday  in  June,  "and  on  that 
day,  unless  it  is  otherwise  ordered,  they  further  adjourn 
their  respective  Houses  until  the  first  Monday  of  Decem 
ber  ' ' ;  and  got  but  fourteen  votes  for  his  motion.  Yates 
was  most  bitter  against  a  long  adjournment.  It  was  the 
duty  of  Congress  to  watch  the  President.  "He  is  not 
to  be  trusted.  He  is  opposed  to  our  laws."  "Whoever 
that  man  be,"  he  declared,  "whether  President  of  the 
United  States  or  any  other  person,  who  stands  in  the 
path  of  this  country  for  union,  to  honor  and  to  glory, 
should  be  taken  out  of  the  way.  I  am  not  saying  how. ' ' 
Nye  warned  the  Senate  that  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States  might,  next  month,  decide  the  reconstruc 
tion  measures  unconstitutional,  and  where  would  the 

*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  315-7. 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  219 

Congress  be  then,  unable  to  assemble  until  December? 
Williams  shrewdly  remarked  that  Congress  could  not 
control  the  President  by  remaining  in  session.  "We 
know  by  experience  that  the  President  will  do  as  he  sees 
proper  whether  Congress  is  or  is  not  in  session."  But, 
in  this  high  contention,  it  was  Sumner  who  bore  away 
the  palm.  With  cool  candour  and  with  judicial  preci 
sion,  he  arrayed  his  arguments  against  adjournment. 
There  were  "two  controlling  facts  staring  him  in  the 
face."  First.  "Our  President  is  a  bad  man"— "the 
author  of  incalculable  woe  to  his  country. "  "  Search 
history,"  this  future  judge  of  the  President  went  on, 

"and  I  am  sure  that  you  will  find  no  ruler,  who  dur 
ing  the  same  short  space  of  time  has  done  so  much  mis 
chief  to  his  country.  He  stands  alone  in  bad  eminence. 
Nobody  in  ancient  or  modern  times  can  be  his  parallel. 
Alone  in  the  evil  he  has  done,  he  is  also  alone  in  the 
maudlin  and  frantic  manner  which  he  has  adopted." 

'  .  .  .  And  now  I  ask  can  Congress  quietly  vote  to  go 
home  and  leave  this  bad  man  without  hindrance  of  any 
kind?" 

Second.     The  other  "fact"  he  illustrated  by  an  en 
graving  in  Harper's  Weekly  where,  as  he  described  it: 

"President  Johnson  is  represented  as  a  Roman  emperor 
presiding  in  the  amphitheater  with  imperatorial  pomp,  and 
surrounded  by  his  trusty  counselors,  among  whom  it  is  easy 
to  distinguish  the  Secretary  of  State  and  the  Secretary  of 
the  Navy,  all  of  whom  look  with  complacency  at  the 
butchery  below.  The  victims  are  black,  and  their  sacrifice, 
as  gladiators,  makes  a  'Roman  holiday.'  Beneath  this 


220    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

picture  is  written  ' Amphitheatrum  Johnsonianum,  Mas 
sacre  of  the  Innocents  at  New  Orleans,  July,  1866.'  This 
inscription  tells  a  terrible  story.  The  massacre  proceeds 
under  the  patronage  of  the  President.  His  presidential 
rod  is  the  law.  At  his  will  blood  spirts  and  men  bite  the 
dust.  .  .  .  This  whole  country  is  an  Amphitheatrum  John 
sonianum." 

But  Sumner,  notwithstanding  his  renown  as  an  orator 
and  as  one  of  the  great  men  of  his  generation,  had  very 
little  influence  over  the  Senate ;  and  Trumbull  's  resolu 
tion  passed  by  a  vote  of  29  to  16.* 

This  was  not  the  end  of  the  matter,  however.  Wilson 
moved  a  reconsideration  and,  the  House  having  adopted 
a  resolution  "to  assemble  again  on  the  first  Wednesdays 
of  May,  June,  September  and  November  unless  the 
President  of  the  Senate  and  the  Speaker  of  the  House 
shall  by  joint  proclamation  issued  ten  days  before  the 
time  fixed  declare  there  is  no  occasion  for  a  meeting," 
the  judiciary  committee  was  instructed  to  inquire 
whether  Congress  had  the  right  to  vest  such  a  power  in 
the  presiding  officers ;  but  the  committee  shirked  the  con 
stitutional  question,  reporting  a  simple  resolution  to 
adjourn  without  day.  Two  amendments  were  offered— 
one  by  Howe  to  adjourn  until  June  and  then  unless 
otherwise  ordered  until  December,  one  by  Drake  to  ad 
journ  until  June  and  then  if  no  quorum  be  present  until 
September  and  then  there  being  no  quorum  until  De 
cember;  but  both  were  rejected.  Sumner  offered  a 
proviso  that  the  President  of  the  Senate  and  the  Speaker 
of  the  House  at  any  time  before  December  might  by 

*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  303-8. 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  221 

proclamation  convene  the  two  Houses,  and  it  received 
but  fifteen  votes.  Once  again,  the  resolution  adjourning 
sine  die  was  adopted  by  the  Senate.  The  House  sent  it 
back  amended  so  as  to  provide  for  two  intermediate 
meetings  unless  the  presiding  officers  proclaim  there  is 
no  occasion.  Sherman  was  of  the  opinion  that  Congress 
could  delegate  to  the  presiding  officers  "the  right  to 
designate  the  time  when  we  shall  meet."  But  Bucka- 
lew  in  a  few  words  demonstrated  that  the  power  was 
exclusive  in  the  President,  and  Edmunds  did  so  like 
wise,  in  an  argument  so  neat  as  to  convince  every  sena 
tor  except  Sumner  whose  forensic  habit  was  silently  to 
ignore  an  unanswerable  argument  ^and  restate  the  dis 
proved  proposition  with  increased  emphasis.  At 
length,  on  Friday,  the  two  Houses  came  to  an  agreement 
to  adjourn  until  the  first  Wednesday  in  July  "when  the 
roll  shall  be  called  and  the  presiding  officer  of  each 
House  shall  inform  the  presiding  officer  of  the  other 
whether  or  not  a  quorum  is  present,  and  if  a  quorum  of 
the  two  Houses  shall  not  have  appeared,  they  shall  ad 
journ  the  two  Houses  without  day." 

During  this  long  struggle,  the  subject  of  the  impeach 
ment  was  continually  obtruding  itself,  the  members  who 
favoured  the  movement,  opposing,  the  members,  who  op 
posed,  favouring,  adjournment  without  day.  The  inves 
tigation  was  dragging  along,  an  occasional  witness  ap 
pearing  before  the  judiciary  committee  during  the  ses 
sion.  The  President's  bank  account  was  overhauled; 
newspaper  men  were  examined  about  interviews  with 
the  President;  the  New  Orleans  liot  was  touched  on; 

*  /(/.,  pp.  352-00,  401-2-8,  438-41. 


222   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

and  General  Butler  exulted  in  the  discovery  of  what  he 
believed  to  be  a  damning  offence  in  the  pardoning  of 
about  two  hundred  deserters  in  order  to  render  them 
available  as  voters  for  the  President's  policy.  But  it 
was  becoming  daily  more  and  more  manifest  that  the 
selection  of  Wade  as  the  heir-apparent  had  given  im 
peachment  its  death-blow.  Unless  some  event  occurred 
to  rekindle  the  fire,  it  must  eventually  die  out.  Butler's 
startling  interrogations  about  Booth's  diary  revived  for 
a  moment  the  dwindling  excitement.  The  committee 
called  Stanton  and  Holt  before  it  to  explain  the  mutila 
tion  of  the  leaves.*  It  was  rumoured  that  some  of  its 
members  sought  the  cell  where  John  H.  Surratt  was  con 
fined  to  ascertain  whether  the  prisoner  might  be  induced 
to  implicate  the  President.  But  these  spasmodic  efforts 
availed  but  little.  It  was  true,  as  Blaine  said,  the  con 
servative  element  among  the  Eepublicans  preferred  to 
bear  the  ills  they  had  with  Andrew  Johnson  than  fly  to 
others  that  they  knew  not  of  with  Wade.  The  day  be 
fore  the  adjournment  a  final  effort  was  made  to  show 
that  the  movement  had  some  life  in  it  still.  Clarke  of 
Kansas  submitted  to  the  House  a  long  preamble  reciting 
what  had  been  done  by  the  committee  and  declaring  it 
dangerous  for  Congress  to  adjourn  with  the  impeach 
ment  of  the  President  hanging  over  the  people,  and  a 
resolution  that  Congress  adjourn  until  the  first  Monday 
in  June  for  the  purpose  of  acting  upon  the  report  of  the 
committee  on  the  charges  against  the  President.  A 
member  of  the  committee  stated  that  it  had  resolved  to 
separate  until  the  first  of  May  when  it  purposed  to  con- 

*  Imp.  Inv.,  passim  ;  id.,  pp.  285,  408. 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  223 

tinue  its  labours.  Butler  made  the  most  of  his  newly- 
discovered  pardoned  deserters.  Stevens  made  the  stag 
gering  remark: 

"For  the  last  three  or  four  months  I  have  been  satisfied 
that  the  Committee  are  making  but  a  mere  pretence  of 
prosecuting  impeachment  by  way  of  throwing  it  out  of 
doors.  I  do  not  believe  they  ever  intended  it,  and  I  do 
not  believe  they  intend  it  now. ' ' 

The  House  substituted  the  Edmunds  resolution  for 
Clarke's  and  laid  the  preamble  on  the  table.* 

Sumner,  who  opposed  all  adjournments,  had  predicted 
that  there  would  be  a  July  session  and  a  session  for 
" business";  and  his  prediction  was  fulfilled.  The 
President,  with  a  promptness  which  disappointed  his 
enemies,  named  the  military  commanders  under  the 
main  reconstruction  act  as  early  as  the  eleventh  day  of 
March;  General  Schofield  remained  in  the  first  district; 
General  Sickles  in  the  second;  General  Thomas  was  as 
signed  to  the  third  but  declined  and  General  Pope  was 
substituted ;  General  Ord  took  charge  of  the  fourth ;  and 
General  Sheridan  was  continued  in  command  of  Louis 
iana  and  Texas,  these  two  states,  Florida  being  trans 
ferred  to  the  third,  now  constituting  the  fifth.  Serious 
questions  arose  concerning  the  power  of  the  military 
commanders,  in  connection  with  the  civil  governments 
still  allowed  to  exist,  and  the  duties  of  the  registrars, 
both  under  the  main  and  the  supplementary  acts;  and 
they  came  pouring  in  upon  the  President  and  by  him 
were  referred  to  the  Attorney-General.  In  the  latter 

*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  446-50. 


224   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

part  of  May,  that  officer  wrote  an  opinion  holding  that, 
under  the  supplementary  act,  the  boards  of  registration 
had  no  right  to  examine  an  applicant  and  investigate  the 
question  of  his  competency,  provided  he  was  ready  to 
take  the  oath  required  by  law ;  an  interpretation  charac 
terized  by  Sheridan  in  a  letter  to  Grant  as  "opening 
a  broad  macadamized  road  for  perjury  and  fraud  to 
travel  on."  On  the  twelfth  of  June,  the  Attorney- 
General  delivered  another  opinion  on  a  more  far-reach 
ing  and  important  question.  His  general  conclusion 
was  that,  until  the  process  of  reconstruction  was  com 
plete,  the  two  acts  contemplated  the  coexistence  of  two 
forms  of  government ;  one,  the  civil  governments  of  the 
states  included  in  the  district,  which  were  to  be  regarded, 
as  heretofore,  the  ordinary  organs  of  the  sovereign  au 
thority  ;  the  other,  the  military  governments,  which  were 
to  be  auxiliary,  suppletory  to  the  others  upon  adequate 
occasion.  As  corollaries  of  this  main  conclusion  the 
Attorney-General  held:  1.  That,  in  the  absence  of  any 
express  grant  in  the  acts  in  question,  the  military  com 
manders  had  no  power  to  remove  or  suspend  any  civil 
officer  of  the  governments  of  these  states,  much  less  to 
appoint  civilians  in  their  place,  and  that  all  attempts  to 
exercise  such  power  were  null  and  void.  2.  That  the 
military  commanders  possessed  no  powers  of  legislation 
whatever— i.  e.,  to  promulgate  decrees  and  give  them 
the  force  of  laws.  The  President  having  embodied  the 
substance  of  both  opinions  in  a  series  of  instructions 
which  were  sent  to  the  military  commanders,  the  cry 
went  forth  over  the  North  that  the  reconstruction  plan 
so  carefully  contrived  by  the  Congress  was  being  emas- 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  225 

ciliated  by  a  perfidious  President  and  his  wily  Attorney- 
General.  Messengers  darted  forth  east,  west,  north 
and  south  to  summon  the  members;  and  in  the  blazing 
days  of  July  they  came  flocking  to  the  capital  to  make 
the  presence  of  a  quorum  in  each  House  certain.  It 
took  them  just  one  week  to  reverse  the  Attorney-General 
by  passing  a  second  supplementary  act  declaring  the 
true  intent  and  meaning  of  the  other  two  acts  to  be 
that  the  civil  governments  allowed  to  exist  provisionally 
in  the  ten  states  were  subordinate  in  all  respects  to  the 
military  commanders ;  granting  the  military  command 
ers  power  to  suspend  or  remove  every  officer  of  these 
states,  from  governor  or  legislator  down  to  a  justice  of 
the  peace  or  an  alderman  and  to  appoint  some  person  in 
his  place ;  and  making  valid  acts  of  this  character  al 
ready  done.  It  further  provided  that  the  oath  of  the 
applicant  for  registration  was  not  conclusive  on  the 
board,  and  that  the  board  was  not  bound  to  register  un 
less  satisfied  the  applicant  possessed  the  qualifications 
of  an  elector  under  the  acts  of  Congress ;  and  that  these 
boards  had  the  right  to  revise  the  lists,  and  to  strike  off 
or  add  any  names  they  might  determine  were,  on  the 
one  hand,  not  rightfully  there,  or,  on  the  other,  ought 
to  be  there;  and  that  the  military  commanders  and  the 
boards  of  registration  should  pay  no  regard  to  the  opin 
ions  of  any  civil  officer  of  the  United  States.* 

The  veto  message  on  this  measure  stirred  up  an  angry 
agitation.  In  the  many  previous  messages  of  this  char 
acter,  while  the  objections  of  the  President  were  set  forth 
with  firmness,  there  was  nothing  like  a  declaration  of 

*  McPh.  Recon.,  p.  335. 
15 


226   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

resistance  to  the  ultimate  action  of  the  Congress.  But, 
now,  when  the  triumph  of  the  reconstruction  policy  of 
that  body  appeared  to  be  assured  and  the  President's 
power  of  restraint  at  its  lowest  ebb,  Johnson  for  the  first 
time  struck  a  clear  note  of  defiance,  giving  notice  that 
there  was  a  limit  to  the  submission  of  the  executive. 

4 'Within  a  period  less  than  a  year,"  so  ran  the  message, 
"the  legislation  of  Congress  has  attempted  to  strip  the 
executive  department  of  the  Government  of  some  of  its 
essential  powers.  The  Constitution  and  the  oath  provided 
in  it  devolve  upon  the  President  the  power  and  duty  to 
see  that  the  laws  are  faithfully  executed.  The  Constitu 
tion,  in  order  to  carry  out  this  power,  gives  him  the  choice 
of  the  agents,  and  makes  them  subject  to  his  control  and 
supervision.  But,  in  the  execution  of  these  laws  the  consti 
tutional  obligation  upon  the  President  remains,  but  the 
power  to  exercise  that  constitutional  duty  is  effectually 
taken  away. 

"The  military  commander  is,  as  to  the  power  of  appoint 
ment,  made  to  take  the  place  of  the  President,  and  the  Gen 
eral  of  the  Army  the  place  of  the  Senate ;  and  any  attempt 
on  the  part  of  the  President  to  assert  his  own  constitutional 
power  may,  under  pretense  of  law,  be  met  by  official  insub 
ordination.  It  is  to  be  feared  that  these  military  officers, 
looking  to  the  authority  given  by  these  laws  rather  than  to 
the  letter  of  the  Constitution,  will  recognize  no  authority 
but  the  commander  of  the  district  and  the  General  of  the 
Army. 

"If  there  were  no  other  objection  than  this  to  this  pro 
posed  legislation  it  would  be  sufficient.  While  I  hold  the 
chief  executive  authority  of  the  United  States,  while  the 
obligation  rests  upon  me  to  see  that  all  the  laws  are  faith- 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  227 

fully  executed,  I  can  never  willingly  surrender  that  trust 
or  the  powers  given  for  its  execution.  I  can  never  give 
my  assent  to  be  made  responsible  for  the  faithful  execution 
of  laws  and  at  the  same  time  surrender  that  trust  and  the 
powers  which  accompany  it  to  any  other  executive  officer, 
high  or  low,  or  to  any  number  of  executive  officers.  If  this 
executive  trust,  vested  by  the  Constitution  in  the  President, 
is  to  be  taken  from  him  and  vested  in  a  subordinate  officer, 
the  responsibility  will  be  with  Congress  in  clothing  the  sub 
ordinate  with  unconstitutional  power  and  with  the  officer 
who  assumes  its  exercise. '  '* 

Stevens  contemptuously  recommended  that  the  House 
better  pass  the  bill  and  then  go  home  '  *  so  that  the  com 
mittee  so  diligently  engaged  in  providing  for  the  im 
peachment  of  the  President  may  complete  their  work  in 
the  shortest  possible  time ' ' ;  but  Mr.  Boutwell  could  not 
allow  such  treasonable  declarations  to  go  to  the  country 
without  a  word : 

"The  language  of  this  document  convinces  me  of  that  of 
which  indeed  I  had  but  little  doubt  before,  that  from  the  op 
pression  which  through  the  instrumentality  of  this  man,  has 
rested  upon  twelve  millions  of  people,  and  which  has  only 
been  temporarily  removed  by  the  measures  against  which 
the  President  in  this  document  vainly  protests,  there  is  no 
relief  except  in  the  assertion  of  that  great  power  which 
resides  in  this  House  alone,  and  for  the  neglect  to  exercise 
that  power  the  people  of  the  country  will  hold  us  to  a 
strict  account.  Posterity,  not  intimidated  by  the  fears 
which  seem  to  control  us,  will  render  its  stern  verdict 
against  us  if  we  hesitate  to  arraign  the  President  for  the 

*  Message  in  Globe,  id.,  pp.  741-3. 


228  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

crimes  and  misdemeanors  of  which  he  is  guilty  before  the 
country  and  the  Avorld. " 

Randall  rose  to  tell  "the  Massachusetts  Impeacher" 
that  he  had  no  faith  in  the  bluster  about  impeachment. 
"You  do  not  mean  impeachment,  gentlemen,  for  you  do 
not  dare  do  it."  Butler  admitted  the  charge:  "We 
dare  not  do  our  duty  in  this  respect.  With  shame  and 
confusion  of  face  I  for  one  confess  the  truth  and 
justice  of  that  accusation  to  the  country."  Williams, 
a  member  of  the  committee,  exclaimed:  "There  is  a 
time  when  timid  counsels,  which  betray  like  treason, 
must  cease  to  govern  the  Legislative  Assembly  of  this 
nation.  I  think  that  this  time  has  now  arrived.  For 
the  first  time  in  our  history  the  Chief  Executive  Magis 
trate  of  this  nation  strides  into  its  great  council  chamber 
and  flings  his  mace,  in  the  way  of  defiance,  at  our  very 
feet. ' '  Schenck  joined  in  the  chorus :  l  i  There  is  spread 
upon  the  public  journals  of  this  country  in  shape  of 
documents  to  which  the  name  of  the  President  is  at 
tached,  enough  of  history  to  satisfy  me  that  he  has  as 
sumed  a  position  of  hostility  to  a  coordinate  branch  of 
the  Government  and  to  the  proper  rule  in  this  country, 
which  amounts  to  a  great  political  crime,  for  which  he 
might  be,  and  if  we  are  true  to  our  duty  ought  to  be 
degraded  from  the  office  he  holds."  Stevens,  in  his 
original  way,  put  an  end  to  the  furor :  "I  agree  with  my 
amiable  colleague  (Randall)  that  you  cannot  impeach 
the  President  of  the  United  States.  .  .  .  There  are  un 
seen  agencies  at  work,  invisible  powers  operating  every 
where  in  this  country  which  when  called  upon  can  and 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  229 

will  protect  a  man  of  that  kind  from  all  danger.  I  have 
taken  some  pains  to  look  into  the  position  of  this  House 
and  of  the  Senate  and  am  quite  sure  that  there  is  power 
enough,  first  to  prevent  the  voting  of  impeachment  here, 
and  secondly,  if  impeachment  were  voted  to  prevent  con 
viction  elsewhere."  The  House  then  overrode  the  veto 
by  the  usual  overwhelming  majority.* 

The  reading  of  the  message  in  the  Senate  provoked 
no  such  explosion;  but,  when  the  question  of  adjourn 
ment  was  taken  up,  the  pent-up  bitterness  of  certain  sen 
ators  broke  loose.  The  House  having  sent  to  the  Senate 
a  resolution  fixing  the  thirteenth  of  November  as  the 
day  to  which  Congress  should  adjourn,  Sherman  moved 
to  amend  it  by  providing  for  an  adjournment  without 
day;  and  upon  this  motion  Sumner  opened  the  fight: 

"How  Congress,  after  listening  to  the  message  of  to-day, 
.  .  .  can  quietly  vote  to  go  home  and  leave  this  post  of  duty 
until  next  winter,  passes  my  understanding.  .  .  .  The  mes 
sage  from  the  beginning  to  end  was  of  defiance.  ...  As  I 
listened  to  this  appeal,  which  was  calculated  to  revive  the 
dying  rebellion,  I  felt  that  one  of  two  things  must  be  done ; 
its  author  must  be  removed  from  the  executive  chair,  or 
Congress  must  continue  in  permanent  session  to  watch  and 
counteract  him.  Such  is  the  alternative.  One  failing, 
the  other  must  be  done.  .  .  .  Unquestionably  it  belongs  to 
the  other  House  to  initiate  the  proceedings  which  shall  set 
the  President  at  your  bar.  But  until  then  it  is  the  right 
and  the  duty  of  every  senator  to  express  himself  freely  with 
regard  to  his  conduct;  nor  can  there  be  any  limit  to  this 
latitude.  It  is  as  broad  as  human  thought.  No  future 
*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  743-7. 


230  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

duty  can  be  a  straight-jacket  now.  Because  the  President 
may  be  impeached  the  Senate  is  not  obliged  to  be  silent 
with,  regard  to  him.  Our  Constitution  is  guilty  of  no  such 
absurdity.  ...  If  I  had  powers  of  persuasion  I  would  use 
them  all  to  induce  you  to  remain  as  a  guard  to  the  Con 
stitution  and  a  constabulary  force  for  the  rebel  States.  .  .  . 
Sitting  in  your  seats  here,  you  are  a  mighty  police,  at  the 
call  of  general  or  citizen,  and  you  are  also  a  terror  to  that 
evil-doer,  the  President. ' ' 

Sherman  failed  to  appreciate  this  distinction  between 
the  denouncing  senator  and  the  impartial  judge  em 
bodied  in  the  same  man.  "It  does  seem  to  me,"  he 
said,  ' '  a  very  strange  thing  that  a  judge  by  whose  vote 
alone  the  President  can  be  removed  should  declare  he 
must  be  removed.  .  .  .  Shall  we,  the  judges  .  .  .  decide 
beforehand  that  the  President  ought  to  be  removed!" 
Buckalew's  rebuke  was  more  direct:  "In  my  opinion 
the  Senator  from  Massachusetts  forgets  his  audience 
and  forgets  the  place  where  he  speaks,  in  the  remarks 
which  he  now  submits  to  us,  .  .  .  and  that  out  of  respect 
to  our  political  institutions  and  the  Constitution  of  the 
country  under  which  we  assemble,  and  to  the  reasonable 
and  just  opinions  of  the  American  people,  we  should 
withhold  ourselves  from  the  expression  of  judgment 
upon  a  question  which  is  not  here  and  which  cannot 
come  here  unless  it  be  brought  here  by  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  over  whose  action  we  have  no  control." 
To  such  an  admonition  the  senator  from  Massachusetts 
was  absolutely  impervious.  He  replied :  ' '  The  Senator 
says  the  question  is  not  here;  in  other  words,  that  this 
is  not  the  time  to  discuss  the  President.  ...  If  he  is 


THE    RECONSTRUCTION    ACT  231 

President,  we  must  remain  at  our  posts,  precisely  as 
Grant  remained  before  Richmond.  .  .  .  Because  we 
have  the  successor  of  Jefferson  Davis  in  the  presidential 
chair  therefore  Congress  must  stay.  That  is  my  argu 
ment  in  a  nutshell. ' ' 

The  two  Houses  having  come  to  an  agreement  by  con 
ference  committees  to  adjourn  until  the  twenty-first  day 
of  November,  this  second  meeting  closed  on  the 
twentieth  day  of  July. 

*  Globe,  id.,  pp.  732-4. 


CHAPTER  III 

EDWIN  M.  STANTON 

ON  the  thirteenth  day  of  May,  1867,  Jefferson  Davis 
sat  in  the  United  States  court-room  at  Richmond  accom 
panied  by  his  counsel,  Charles  O 'Conor  and  George 
Shea.  After  two  years'  captivity  as  a  prisoner  of  war, 
he  had  been  brought  from  Fort  Monroe  in  obedience  to 
a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  and  surrendered  to  the  civil 
authorities  for  trial  on  an  indictment  for  treason.  The 
United  States  district  judge  (Underwood)  was  on  the 
bench,  but  Chief  Justice  Chase,  not  being  able  to  leave 
Washington  until  the  following  week,  was  absent.  The 
radicals,  for  the  most  part,  would  have  given  the  illus 
trious  captive  short  shrift.  Mr.  Boutwell  would  have 
had  him  condemned  to  death  by  a  military  commission 
as  the  chief  instigator  of  the  assassination  of  Lincoln. 
Stevens,  as  he  declared,  "would  have  organized  a  mili 
tary  tribunal  and  .  .  .  have  put  him  and  all  the  mem 
bers  of  his  Cabinet  on  trial  for  the  murders  of  Ander- 
sonville  and  of  Salisbury."  Logan  said  in  the  House: 
"Had  I  captured  Jefferson  Davis  and  his  disposal  had 
been  committed  to  my  hands  I  would  have  organized  an 
able  court-martial  and  have  given  him  a  fair  trial,  a 
just  sentence  and  prompt  execution."  Nye  said  in  the 
Senate:  "If  I  had  my  way  I  would  have  hung  Jeff. 
Davis,  no  matter  how  I  tried  him.  When  the  two  great 

232 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  233 

armies,  that  of  General  Sherman  and  the  army  of  the 
Potomac,  were  mustered  out  in  this  city,  I  would  have 
had  them  formed  in  a  hollow  square  and  hung  him  there, 
and  the  world  would  have  said  amen."  But  not  a 
whisper  of  these  horrid  charges  or  of  these  blood-thirsty 
methods  is  heard  in  the  court.  O 'Conor  announces  that 
the  defendant  is  ready  for  trial  on  the  indictment,  Wil 
liam  M.  Evarts  announces  that  the  United  States  are 
not.  A  postponement  until  November  is  agreed  to. 
The  amount  of  bail  is  fixed  at  $100,000.  Gerritt  Smith, 
Horace  Greeley,  Horace  F.  Clark,  the  son-in-law  of  Cor 
nelius  Vanderbilt,  step  forward  and  sign  the  bond,  and 
the  late  president  of  the  Confederate  states  steps  out  into 
the  streets  of  the  city  that  was  so  recently  their  capital 
a  free  man. 

This  incident  served  to  quicken  the  flagging  movement 
for  impeachment.  The  committee  were  in  session,  hav 
ing  reassembled  on  the  sixth  of  May,  and  were  groping 
along  in  the  dark  to  find  food  for  the  suspicion  that 
Andrew  Johnson  was  somehow  a  co-conspirator  of  Jef 
ferson  Davis,  when  this  discharge  of  the  arch-traitor 
with  the  consent  of  the  government  flashed  a  sudden  light 
upon  the  track  they  were  following.  Members  of  the 
Cabinet  were  summoned — Seward,  Stanton  and  Stan- 
bery;  and,  afterwards,  Chief  Justice  Chase,  Evarts, 
Judge  Underwood  and  the  district  attorney,  and  Horace 
Greeley.  But  their  testimony  was  a  grievous  disap 
pointment.  So  far  from  implicating  the  President  par 
ticularly,  it  appeared,  rather,  that  he  was  the  only  offi- 

*  Globe,  1st  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  546.  Id.,  App.,  p.  16.  Id.,  1st  Sess. 
39th  Cong.,  p.  2527. 


234  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

cial  anxious  to  prosecute ;  the  postponement  and  bailing 
having  been  managed  without  his  interposition.  Sew- 
ard,  whose  scars  were  visible  proof  that  he  at  least  was 
free  from  plotting  the  assassination,  told  the  committee 
that  the  infamy  into  which  such  professional  witnesses 
as  Conover  had  fallen  rendered  impossible  the  prosecu 
tion  of  Davis  as  an  accomplice  of  Booth  and  Payne. 
Stanton,  the  author  of  the  proclamation  offering  $100,- 
000  reward  for  the  capture  of  Davis  as  such  accomplice, 
testified  that  he  himself  advised  the  return  to  the  writ 
of  liabeas  corpus.  Stanbery  swore  that  there  was  no 
evidence  in  his  department  to  warrant  any  charge  but 
that  of  treason ;  and  that,  in  his  opinion,  after  the  sup 
pression  of  the  rebellion,  prosecutions  for  treason  ought 
to  stop.*  Ashley  came  to  the  committee's  relief  with  his 
champion  witness,  LaFayette  C.  Baker,  who,  since  his 
last  appearance  on  the  stand,  had  been  searching  for  the 
man  Adamson— the  pretended  possessor  of  Andrew 
Johnson's  letters  to  Jefferson  Davis.  He  cheered  the 
committee  with  the  information  that,  though  he  had  not 
been  able  to  find  Adamson,  he  had  lit  upon  one  Mrs. 
Harris,  who  knew  about  the  letters  and  whom  he  thought 
the  committee  might  induce  to  appear  for  a  valuable  con 
sideration.  He  testified  also  that  when  Booth's  diary 
was  delivered  up  to  the  Secretary  of  War,  no  leaves 
were  missing,  there  were  no  stubs ;  the  book  was  intact,  t 
He  was  sent  on  his  rollicking  way  in  search  of  his  Mrs. 
Harris  who  eventually  proved  to  be  as  mythical  a  per 
sonage  as  the  corresponding  familiar  of  Mrs.  Gamp. 

*  Imp.  Inv.,  pp.  644  et  seq.,  554  et  seq.,  397,  371,  544,  578,  778. 
f  Id.,  pp.  449  et  seq.,  458. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  235 

The  committee,  also,  examined  the  agent  of  the  asso 
ciated  press  in  Washington,  who  followed  the  President 
as  he  "swung  round  the  circle"  and  reported  his 
speeches;  and,  while  its  members  listened  to  the  re 
hearsal  of  his  flings  at  the  Congress  and  his  threats 
against  faithful  office-holders,  they  heard  with  less  grati 
fication  that  the  President  was  '  *  not  drunk  "  or  "  excited 
with  liquor"  on  that  memorable  tour.* 

On  Saturday,  the  first  of  June,  the  committee  ceased 
to  take  testimony,  and  on  Monday  came  to  a  vote.  It 
was  decided  by  a  majority  of  one  "that  from  the  testi 
mony  before  them  it  did  not  appear  that  the  President 
of  the  United  States  was  guilty  of  such  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanors  as  called  for  the  exercise  of  the  impeach 
ing  power  of  the  House."  The  five  in  the  affirmative 
were  Wilson  (the  chairman),  Woodbridge  and  Church 
ill,  Kepublicans,  and  Marshall  and  Eldridge,  Democrats. 
The  four  in  the  negative  were  Boutwell,  Thomas,  Wil 
liams  and  Lawrence,  all  Republicans.f  The  members 
then  separated,  but  the  sudden  summons  to  the  July  ses 
sion  brought  them  together  in  a  hurry  to  prepare  their 
report  to  be  laid  before  the  House.  The  minority  of  the 
committee,  exasperated  more  than  ever  against  the  Presi 
dent  because  of  his  recent  interference  with  reconstruc 
tion  and  more  thoroughly  convinced  than  ever  of  the 
necessity  for  his  removal,  protested  against  reporting  a 
conclusion  favourable  to  the  enemy  at  the  moment  of  a 
fresh  onset,  and  demanded  a  reopening  of  the  case;— 

*  Imp.  Inv.,  pp.  525-28. 

•(•Rep.  Minority  report  on  Imp.  See  also  Globe,  1st  Sess.  40th  Cong., 
p.  811. 


236  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

which  was  conceded.  The  first  of  the  additional  wit 
nesses  they  called  was  Anna  Surratt,  the  daughter  who 
once  begged  on  her  knees  for  access  to  the  President  to 
implore  a  respite  of  a  few  hours  for  her  condemned 
mother,  and  begged  in  vain.  In  the  city  where  the  com 
mittee  sat,  her  brother  was  undergoing  trial  on  the 
charge  of  complicity  with  his  mother  in  the  assassina 
tion,  and,  at  the  very  hour  the  daughter  was  testifying 
before  the  committee,  the  government  witness,  Weich- 
man,  was  trying  his  best  in  the  court-room  to  do  for  the 
son  what  he  had  been  so  successful  in  doing  for  the 
mother.  The  papers  of  Mrs.  Surratt,  seized  by  the  gov 
ernment  at  the  time  of  her  arrest,  had  been  delivered  to 
the  daughter,  and  Mr.  Boutwell  asked  her  whether  there 
were  any  letters  of  Booth 's  amongst  them ;  thus  reveal 
ing  the  motive  of  the  return  of  the  papers  which  to  his 
prepossessed  understanding  looked  highly  suspicious. 
The  papers  turned  out  to  be  purely  of  a  business  charac 
ter.  The  witness  testified  she  never  saw  a  letter  written 
by  J.  Wilkes  Booth ;  she  never  went  to  the  President  to 
apply  for  the  papers — never  went  to  the  President's 
house  but  once,  she  said  with  pathetic  significance.  She 
never  saw  the  President  to  have  any  conversation  with 
him.  "I  do  not  want  to  see  him  either,"  she  added.* 

The  persevering  minority  went  on  calling  witnesses 
until  the  beginning  of  the  July  session,  and  from  time  to 
time  during  its  progress.  On  the  first  of  July  a  piece 
of  evidence  came  out  which,  to  Mr.  Boutwell's  mind  at 
least,  filled  up  the  measure  of  Johnson's  wickedness. 
Stanley  Matthews  (afterwards  a  senator  of  the  United 

*  Imp.  Inv.,  pp.  777-8.     Cf.  Trial  of  Surratt,  Vol.  1,  p.  391. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  237 

States  and  an  associate  justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States)  testified  that,  as  long  ago  as  February, 
1865,  at  Cincinnati,  Andrew  Johnson,  then  Vice  Presi 
dent-elect,  on  his  way  to  his  inauguration,  made  this 
prophecy:  "I  will  tell  you  what  it  is,  if  the  country  is 
ever  to  be  saved,  it  is  to  be  done  through  the  old  Demo 
cratic  party. ' '  James  Speed  was  summoned  from  his 
retirement  in  the  expectation  that  he  might  implicate  the 
chief  from  whom  he  had  parted;  but,  from  aught  that 
appeared,  he  too  had  invariably  sustained  the  President. 
The  committee  found  the  actor,  to  whom  Booth  handed 
his  vindicatory  letter  on  the  afternoon  before  the  assas 
sination,  but  who  in  his  terror  destroyed  it  that  night. 
The  oral  version  he  gave  of  its  contents  made  no  men 
tion  of  Andrew  Johnson,  and  impliedly  exculpated  the 
Surratts.f  Notwithstanding  the  ill-success  attending 
the  committee's  efforts  in  this  direction,  Butler  intro 
duced  in  the  House,  on  the  eighth  of  July,  resolutions 
providing  for  a  special  committee  to  investigate  "all  the 
facts  and  circumstances  connected  with  the  assassina 
tion  of  the  late  lamented  President, ' '  and  recommending 
an  act  of  grace  and  amnesty  to  all  persons  giving  evi 
dence  throwing  light  on  the  great  conspiracy.  The 
House  suspended  the  rules  to  adopt  the  resolutions  and 
directed  that  the  testimony  taken  by  the  judiciary  com 
mittee  germane  to  this  subject  be  turned  over  to  this 
select  body,  fitly  called  ' l  the  Assassination  Committee. ' ' 
Butler,  who  was  appointed  chairman,  kept  his  creature 
alive  for  some  time.  It  was  heard  of  now  and  then  wan- 

*  Imp.  Inv.,  pp.  780-1. 
t/d.,  pp.  782-8. 


238  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

dering  about  the  corridors  of  tlie  capitol,  but  it  never 
made  a  report  and  the  Impeachment  Trial  blew  it  out 
of  existence.*  Among  the  last  witnesses  sworn  before 
the  judiciary  committee  was  General  Grant,  summoned, 
it  would  seem,  by  the  Democratic  members.  He  testi 
fied  to  the  harmonious  action  of  the  President,  his  Cab 
inet  and  himself  on  the  question  of  reconstruction.  Mr. 
Boutwell  attempted  to  elicit  from  the  witness  some  evi 
dence  that  the  President,  plotting  the  recognition  of  a 
Congress  made  up  of  members-elect  from  the  South  and 
Northern  Democrats,  had  made  overtures  to  him  to  use 
the  army  to  effect  this  object;  but  he  failed  of  his  pur- 
pose.f 

When  the  members  dispersed  for  the  summer,  the  en 
tire  course  and  every  act  of  the  President  had  been  gone 
over  with  Argus-eyes  that  allowed  not  the  slightest  pec 
cadillo  to  escape.  Nothing  remained  to  be  done  but  to 
print  the  testimony  and  report  the  conclusion.  One 
small  gap,  it  is  true,  remained.  LaFayette  C.  Baker 
failed  at  the  last  moment  to  appear  either  with  or  with 
out  his  Mrs.  Harris.  The  chairman  of  the  committee 

*  Globe,  1st  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  pp.  515-7,  522. 

flmp.  Inv.,  pp.  825-836.  Mr.  Boutwell  in  his  article  in  the  Xorth 
American  Review  of  December,  1885,  gives  a  statement  which  he  says 
President  Grant  made  to  him,  that  "  in  the  summer  or  early  autumn  of 
18GC  Johnson  said  to  him  (Grant),  '  If  I  should  have  trouble  with  Con 
gress,  which  side  would  you  support  ?'  to  which  Grant  said,  '  that  would 
depend  upon  which  side  the  law  was.'  " 

In  view  of  this  statement,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  on  July  18, 
1867,  Mr.  Boutwell  put  the  following  question  to  General  Grant  on  the 
witness-stand:  "Did  you  at  any  time  hear  him  (Johnson)  make  any 
remark  looking  to  any  controversy  between  Congress  and  the  Executive?" 
and  that  Grant  answered :  "  I  think  not."  Id.,  p.  834. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  239 

obtained  a  warrant  from  the  House  for  his  apprehen 
sion.  A  messenger,  who  had  been  sent  to  Nashville  in 
search  of  Adamson  and  returned  with  the  information 
that  he  could  find  no  trace  of  such  a  man,  was  despatched 
after  Mrs.  Harris,  whose  personal  appearance  had  been 
minutely  described  to  him  by  Baker.  He  returned  dis 
gusted,  believing  himself  duped,  and  bluntly  swore  to 
his  impression  that ' '  she  is  a  myth  and  there  is  no  such 
woman. ' '  With  this  gap  to  be  filled  up  when  Baker  was 
caught,  the  investigation  which  began  with  such  loud- 
sounding  menace  may  be  said  to  have  ended.* 

vt 

Considering  how  pugnacious  and  unyielding  Andrew 
Johnson  was,  it  is  remarkable  with  what  wariness  and 
tact  he  had  hitherto  steered  his  difficult  course  so  as  to 
lend  no  handle  to  his  numerous  adversaries,  all  on  the 
alert  to  unhorse  him.  The  bills  he  pronounced  uncon 
stitutional  with  such  vigour  and  pertinacity,  when  once 
passed  over  his  veto,  he  put  into  execution,  notwith 
standing  the  Congress  blocked  the  way  to  the  Supreme 
Court  to  which  tribunal  he  was  anxious  to  submit  all  the 
matters  in  dispute.  One  point  there  was,  however,  as 
he  intimated  in  his  recent  message,  at  which  submission 
would  cease.  On  no  account  whatever  would  he  suffer 
the  duty  "to  see  that  the  laws  were  faithfully  executed " 
to  be  snatched  away  from  him  by  legislative  violence 
and  confided  to  some  officer  inferior  to  himself.  The 
constitution  expressly  made  him  commander-in-chief  of 

*  Imp.  Inv.,  pp.  858-9.     Globe,  id.,  p.  757. 


240    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  army,  and  commander-in-chief,  as  long  as  he  held  on 
to  his  office,  he  was  determined  to  be.  By  three  consecu 
tive  acts,  the  Congress  had  made  it  certain  that  the  ten 
Southern  states  w,ere  to  be  placed  under  the  absolute  con 
trol  of  the  army.  On  behalf  of  the  civil  governments  of 
those  states,  the  President  had  made  one  effort  to  miti 
gate  the  infliction,  and  the  Congress,  in  retaliation,  only 
riveted  the  bonds  of  military  rule  the  tighter.  Since,  then, 
absolute  government  by  the  army  was  inevitable,  he 
now  resolved  that  that  government  should  be  by 
the  army  with  him  as  its  commander-in-chief.  If  his 
official  oath  bound  him  to  execute  three  odious  acts  and, 
in  executing  them,  to  preside  over  the  inauguration  of  a 
military  domination  he  abhorred ;  then  that  domination, 
at  all  hazards,  should  be  tempered  as  much  as  possible 
in  practice  by  instructions  emanating  from  its  constitu 
tional  head,  to  be  interfered  with  by  no  inferior  author 
ity  and  to  be  carried  out  in  letter  and  spirit  by  every 
subordinate  officer.  The  enforcement  of  this  momentous 
determination  involved,  in  the  first  place,  the  alterna 
tive  of  the  cessation  of  disobedience  on  the  part  of 
the  military  commanders  of  the  five  districts  or  the 
transportation  of  the  protesting,  recalcitrant,  or  insub 
ordinate  commander  to  another  sphere  of  labour,  and 
the  assignment  of  a  more  docile  officer  in  his  stead.  It 
involved,  in  the  second  place,  something  of  much  more 
far-reaching  importance.  It  meant  the  assumption,  at 
length,  by  the  President,  in  fact,  of  that  which  belonged 
to  him  in  law ;  the  full  control  of  the  department  of  war. 
At  the  head  of  that  department  was  a  personage  whose 
protracted  presence  in  the  Cabinet  was  an  enigma  alike 


./ 

EDWIN  M.   ST ANTON  241 

to  his  friends  and  his  foes.  Indeed,  the  character  and 
career  of  Edwin  M.  Stanton  are  so  enveloped  in  enigma 
that  we  are  compelled  to  pause  in  our  narrative,  where 
for  the  future  he  is  to  play  so  prominent  a  part,  to  gain, 
if  possible,  some  adequate  conception  of  the  man.  To 
do  this  is  made  exceedingly  difficult  because  of  the  curi 
ous  phenomenon  that,  alternately  appearing  and  disap 
pearing  before  the  eye  of  the  inquirer,  now  blending, 
now  separating,  there  are  two  Stantons— one  the  direct 
contradictory  of  the  other.  Listening  to  the  chorus  of 
his  panegyrists,  we  see  a  war-minister  greater  than  the 
elder  Pitt;  an  organizer  of  victory  more  skilful  than 
Carnot ;  a  life-long  abhorrer  of  African  slavery ;  a  pion 
eer-advocate  of  negro  suffrage;  an  orthodox  champion 
continuing  to  sit  in  the  secret  councils  of  the  schismatics 
that  he  may,  with  secret  thwartings  at  first,  and  with 
open  defiance  at  last,  bring  to  naught  the  machinations 
of  the  Arch-Apostate ;  until  in  the  end  he  sinks  beneath 
the  weight  of  his  unparalleled  labours— a  self-sacrifice  to 
his  country  and  a  martyr  to  his  party.  Listening  to  the 
voice  of  his  detractors,  we  see  an  indefatigable,  bustling 
secretary,  making  up  for  the  timidity  of  his  conceptions 
by  the  ruffianism  of  his  demeanour  and  the  tyranny  of 
his  rule ;  a  life-long  dissembler,  taking  on  the  colour  of 
the  political  atmosphere  he  happens  for  the  time  being  to 
be  breathing ;  a  recipient  of  the  prizes  of  one  party  while 
maligning  its  policy  to  the  other,  currying  favour  in  the 
meanwhile  with  the  leaders  of  both  by  fulsome  profes 
sions  of  gratitude  on  the  one  hand  and  pretended  reve 
lations  of  valuable  secrets  on  the  other ;  a  Cabinet  officer 
obsequious  to  his  superiors  or  his  equals  in  authority  to 

16 


242    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  point  of  servility,  and  insolent  and  overbearing  to 
his  inferiors  to  the  point  of  outrage;  governed  by  no 
loftier  motive  than  the  lust  for  office  and  the  power  that 
office  gives;  an  official  parasite  battening  upon  the  life- 
blood  of  his  chief  and  letting  go  his  hold  only  with  the 
breaking  of  his  last  claw;  until,  at  length,  his  early 
friends  having  discarded  the  discovered  renegade  and 
his  new  friends  having  no  further  use  for  the  detected 
spy,  he  is  flung  up  on  a  barren  shore,  and  left  to  die  of 
infinite  disappointment  and,  it  may  be,  by  his  own 
hand. 

If  we  wipe  out  both  these  portraits  as  the  creations  of 
disordered  fancy  or  a  diseased  optic  nerve,  and  resort 
to  the  rigid  historical  point  of  view,  a  similar  double 
image  still  affects  the  sight.  Up  to  the  date  we  have 
now  reached,  there  appear  in  the  history  of  the  time  two 
different  Stantons,  likewise— the  exoteric  Stanton  or  the 
Stanton  of  the  public  records,  and  the  esoteric  Stanton 
or  the  Stanton  of  the  private  coterie.  The  attitudes  he 
assumes  before  the  world,  his  open  political  associates, 
the  various  official  positions  he  holds,  proclaim  one  Stan- 
ton,  the  disciple  of  one  political  creed,  the  supporter  of 
one  political  policy.  The  unanimous  voice  of  a  sect  of 
extremists,  with  whom  he  seems  to  have  worshipped  in 
secret,  proclaim  another  Stanton,  wholly  one  of  them 
selves.  And,  what  renders  a  choice  between  these  two 
images  still  more  difficult,  there  is  not  upon  record,  prior 
to  the  breach  with  President  Johnson,  a  single  authentic 
public  utterance  of  the  man  himself  incompatible  with 
his  ostensible  position  or  corroboratory  of  the  claim  of 
his  cryptic  brethren;  while  there  do  surviye,  here  and 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  243 

there,  sentences  inconsistent  with  any  such  secret  con 
fabulation.  Indeed,  the  fact  of  the  communion  of  Stan- 
ton  with  the  extreme  radicals  receives  support  from  no 
authentic  testimony  coming  from  himself  at  first  hand, 
but,  apart  from  external  circumstances,  rests  entirely 
upon  the  testimony  of  the  extreme  radicals  themselves. 
With  these  formidable  hindrances  to  any  summary  por 
traiture  of  the  man,  we  can  better  fulfil  our  purpose  and 
avoid  the  censure  of  the  friends  of  his  memory  by  letting 
the  witnesses  on  the  one  side  and  on  the  other  speak  for 
themselves,  the  man  himself  speak  for  himself,  and  the 
reader  draw  his  own  conclusion. 

Edwin  M.  Stanton  first  rose  into  national  notoriety  on 
account  of  the  bellicose  demeanour  and  aggressive  elo 
quence  with  which,  as  the  associate  of  those  eminent 
criminal  lawyers,  James  T.  Brady  and  John  Gra 
ham  who  were  the  warm  personal  friends  of  the  pris 
oner,  he  defended  Daniel  E.  Sickles  on  his  trial  for  the 
murder  of  Philip  Barton  Key.  The  homicide  was  com 
mitted  in  the  streets  of  the  capital  of  the  nation;  the 
victim  was  the  district  attorney  of  the  District  of  Colum 
bia;  the  perpetrator  was  a  conspicuous  member  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  having  been  secretary  of  the 
legation  when  James  Buchanan,  now  President  of  the 
United  States,  was  the  American  minister  at  London; 
the  provocation  was  the  seduction  of  the  slayer 's  wife. 
The  trial,  which  owing  to  these  circumstances  attracted 
the  attention  of  the  whole  country,  began  on  the  fourth 
day  of  April,  1859,  and  ended  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  the 
same  month  with  the  acquittal  of  the  accused.  Stanton 
is  depicted  in  the  newspapers  of  the  day,  rushing  in  the 


244    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

heat  of  his  argument  from  the  prisoner's  dock  towards 
the  bench  like  a  maddened  lion.  In  one  of  his  addresses 
to  the  court  it  was  that,  in  explanation  of  a  previous 
remark  of  his  which  the  opposite  counsel  construed  as 
reprehensive  of  the  institution  of  slavery,  he  judged  it 
prudent  to  proclaim:  "He  had  the  blood  of  slave-hold 
ing  parents  in  his  veins;  his  father  had  been  a  North 
Carolinian  and  his  mother  a  Virginian. ' '  At  this  date, 
he  was  a  practicing  lawyer  in  Washington,  having  re 
moved  thither  from  Pittsburg  two  years  before  with  his 
patron  and  friend,  Jeremiah  S.  Black,  who  resigned  a 
seat  upon  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  Pennsyl 
vania  to  become  Attorney-General  in  the  Cabinet  of 
President  Buchanan.  Black  gave  him  important  and 
lucrative  employment  in  defending  the  government 
against  the  exorbitant  claims  of  the  California  miners, 
and  he  passed  the  winter  of  1857-58  in  that  state  en 
gaged  on  behalf  of  the  government  in  what  were  desig 
nated  as  the  California  land  cases.  According  to  the 
testimony  of  his  distinguished  friend  and  employer,  at 
this  time,  "he  made  himself  appear  a  Democrat  of  the 
most  ultra  class. "  "  In  all  the  conflicts  of  the  Buchanan 
Administration  with  the  abolitionists  and  their  allies  he 
was  an  open-mouthed  opponent  of  the  latter.  He  was 
always  sound  on  the  Kansas  question,  and  faithful 
among  the  faithless  on  the  Lecompton  Constitution. ' ' 
"To  Mr.  Buchanan  himself,  and  to  the  members  of  his 
Cabinet,  he  paid  the  most  assiduous  court,  and  showed 
his  devotion  in  ways  which  sometimes  went  rather  too 
close  to  the  verge  of  obsequiousness."  Again:  "We 
were  close  and  intimate  friends  and  I  thought  I  knew 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  245 

him  as  well  as  one  man  could  be  known  to  another. 
...  I  advanced  him  in  his  profession  and  thereby  im 
proved  his  fortune,  but  he  got  nothing  in  that  way  for 
which  he  did  not  render  equivalent  services. "  In  the 
month  before  the  Sickles  trial,  the  Postmaster-General, 
Aaron  V.  Brown,  died,  and  Black  "recommended  him 
pressingly ' '  for  the  vacant  place,  which  was  filled,  how 
ever,  by  Joseph  Holt. 

Such  was  the  Stanton  of  the  years  1857-59  when  he 
emerged  into  the  public  eye,  in  the  prime  of  his  life  and 
in  the  fullness  of  his  powers.  For  this  short  period,  the 
testimony  is  concordant.  Respecting  his  previous  ca 
reer,  the  testimony  is  discordant  to  a  most  wonderful 
degree.  Born  on  the  nineteenth  day  of  December,  1814, 
at  Steubenville,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Ohio  just  below 
where  the  river  bends  round  the  apex  of  that  wedge  of 
territory,  called  ' '  The  Pan  Handle, ' '  which  Virginia  in 
terposes  between  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania,  Stanton  was 
destined  to  reap  benefits  from  every  one  of  the  three  con 
tiguous  states.  Ohio  gave  him  office;  Virginia  the 
Wheeling  Bridge  case ;  Pennsylvania  employment  which 
raised  him  to  eminence  in  his  profession.  The  first  sin 
ister  bit  of  information  we  have  concerns  his  early 
youth.  Henry  Wilson  and  that  veteran  abolitionist, 
Samuel  May,  relate  that  he  told  them  in  after  days,  as  a 
reminiscence  of  his  childhood,  that  Benjamin  Lundy,  the 
early  pioneer  of  abolitionism,  the  forerunner  of  Garri 
son,  was  a  frequent  visitor  at  his  father 's  house  and  held 
long  talks  with  the  former  North  Carolinian  while  the 
boy  sat  upon  Lundy 's  knee  and  drank  in  his  inspired 
words.  The  impression  produced  by  these  early  teach- 


246    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ings  must  have  worn  away  with  time,  for,  according  to 
the  testimony  of  another  veteran  abolitionist,  Theodore 
D.  Weld,  when  he  came  to  Steubenville  "in  the  early 
spring  of  1835"  to  give  "a  course  of  lectures  on 
slavery, ' '  he  was  told  that  l  i  a  young  lawyer  was  to  re 
ply"  to  him.  The  young  lawyer  attended  the  first  and 
second  lectures  and  took  notes,  but,  although  at  the  close 
of  each  lecture  objections  were  called  for,  he  failed  to 
respond.  The  third  morning  found  the  young  cham 
pion  of  the  dominant  party  of  the  town  seeking  the  vet 
eran  missionary  at  his  lodgings,  confessing  that  "he 
meant  to  fight"  but  that  "his  guns  were  spiked,"  and 
acknowledging  himself  a  convert.  In  the  words  of 
Weld  written  thirty-five  years  after :  "  a  conversation  of 
half  an  hour  followed,  during  which  he  greatly  im 
pressed  me  with  his  hearty  frankness,  independence, 
moral  insight  and  keen  mental  force. ' '  So  ignominious 
a  defection  may  have  had  something  to  do  with  the 
young  man's  removal  in  the  following  year  to  Cadiz  in 
the  adjoining  county;  but  his  conversion  to  the  abolition 
ists  must  have  remained  a  profound  secret,  as  the  next 
year  he  was  elected  by  the  Democrats  prosecuting  attor 
ney  of  Harrison  County;  and  after  serving  a  term  of 
two  years  in  that  office  he  returned  to  his  native  place. 
His  open  adhesion  to  the  Democratic  party  was  still 
maintained  in  the  year  1842,  when  the  legislature  "by 
a  strict  party  vote"  elected  him  to  the  post  of  law  re 
porter,  in  which  he  served  three  years ;  yet  Chief  Justice 
Chase  testifies  that,  on  the  eve  of  his  election,  when 
Chase  was  actively  engaged  in  the  organization  of  the 
"Liberty  party,"  "Mr.  Stanton  accosted  him  in  the 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  247 

streets'7  of  Columbus  "and  said  that  he  was  in  entire 
accord  with  the  anti-slavery  sentiments  he  had  just  put 
forth,"  "and  hoped  he  should  soon  be  able  to  take  his 
place  by  his  side."  "Though  he  never  did  so,"  as 
Henry  Wilson  says,  "and  continued  to  act  with  the 
Democratic  party, "  "yet  he  always  maintained  his  in 
timacy  with  Mr.  Chase."  After  his  term  of  service  as 
law  reporter,  he  became  engaged  in  the  celebrated 
Wheeling  Bridge  case,  on  behalf  of  the  state  of  Penn 
sylvania  then  under  Democratic  control ;  and  this  ad 
vance  necessitated  his  admission  as  an  attorney  of  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  which  took  place 
in  1849  and  was  followed  by  his  removal  to  Pittsburg 
and  his  frequent  appearance  at  Washington  before  the 
highest  tribunal  in  the  land.  Now  began  his  close  in 
timacy  with  Judge  Black,  whose  ardent  admirer,  faith 
ful  follower  and  able  coadjutor  he  became,  and  with 
whom,  as  we  have  said,  he  finally  removed  to  Washing 
ton.  Speaking  of  him  during  this  second  period,  Judge 
Black  says : 

11  Among  us,  his  political  principles  were  thought  to  be 
"as  well  known  as  his  name  and  occupation.  He  never 
allowed  his  fidelity  to  be  doubted  for  a  moment.  .  .  .  His 
condemnation  of  the  abolitionists  was  unsparing  for  their 
hypocrisy,  their  corruption,  their  enmity  to  the  Constitu 
tion,  and  their  lawless  disregard  for  the  rights  of  States 
and  individuals.  Thus  he  won  the  confidence  of  the  Demo 
crats.  On  the  faith  of  such  professions  we  promoted  him 
in  his  business,  and  gave  him  office,  honor,  and  fortune/* 
He  "seemed  to  be  a  sound  and  sincere  friend,  political  and 
personal,  of  the  men  who  showered  their  favors  on  his 
head." 


248    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

On  the  other  hand,  Charles  Sumner  testifies  that  in 
the  year  1851  he  was  introduced  to  Mr.  Stanton  by  Mr. 
Chase  as  a  friend  of  the  latter  who  would  be  glad  to 
know  him;  that,  though  they  met  but  seldom,  "when 
ever  they  met,  it  was  as  friends";  that  in  June,  1854, 
Stanton  became  * '  excited ' '  over  the  set  made  upon  Sum 
ner  "by  the  slave-masters  of  the  Senate "  in  the  debate 
over  the  surrender  of  Burns,  the  fugitive  slave,  and 
"afterwards  spoke  of  the  incident  with  much  sympa 
thy  ' ' ;  and  at  the  same  evening  was  present  at  a  gather 
ing  at  the  house  of  the  veteran  abolitionist,  Dr.  Gamaliel 
Bailey,  the  editor  of  the  anti-slavery  organ  called  The 
National  Era  at  the  capital,  "when  he  dwelt  on  the  con 
duct  of  certain  senators, ' '  and  where,  as  Wilson  records, 
he  was  a  frequent  visitor,  and  ' '  often  met  and  associated 
with  anti-slavery  men. ' ' 

We  now  advance  to  a  crisis  in  public  affairs  when,  it 
would  seem,  the  political  principles  of  every  public  man 
could  not  be  a  matter  of  doubt.  The  presidential  elec 
tion  of  1860  was  at  hand.  The  Republican  party  was 
united  and  triumphant  throughout  the  whole  North. 
The  Democratic  party  was  split  in  twain  and  despond 
ent.  The  Union  was  visibly  in  danger.  Stanton, 
through  1859  and  1860,  was  constantly  associated  with 
Attorney-General  Black  in  the  conduct  of  cases  before 
the  Supreme  Court.  According  to  that  officer,  '  *  he  was 
out  and  out  for  Breckenridge  in  1860,  and  regarded  the 
salvation  of  the  country  as  hanging  on  the  forlorn  hope 
of  his  election."  After  the  campaign  was  over  (on  the 
twentieth  of  November)  the  Attorney-General  furnished 
to  President  Buchanan  the  opinion  that,  while  the  gov- 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  249 

eminent  of  the  United  States  had  the  right  to  enforce 
the  federal  laws  against  individuals  everywhere  and  in 
every  state,  to  hold  or  retake  federal  property  and  to 
collect  the  revenue,  it  had  no  right  to  make  war  on  a 
state  to  coerce  it  to  remain  in  the  Union— an  opinion 
concurred  in  by  every  member  of  the  Cabinet  and  the 
substance  of  which  was  incorporated  in  the  message  of 
the  President  which  aroused  such  widespread  animad 
version  throughout  the  North.  The  author  of  the  opin 
ion  says  that  Mr.  Stanton  indorsed  it  ' l  with  extravagant 
and  undeserved  laudation ;  he  gave  his  adhesion  to  the 
annual  message  in  many  ways ;  and  the  special  message 
of  the  eighth  of  January,  1861,  which  expressed  the 
same  principles  with  added  emphasis,  was  carefully 
read  over  to  him  before  it  was  sent  to  Congress,  and  it 
received  his  unqualified  assent. ' '  He  adds  that  the  evi 
dence  of  this  is  "direct  as  well  as  circumstantial,  oral 
as  well  as  documentary,  and  some  of  it  is  in  the  hand 
writing  of  Mr.  Stanton  himself."  And  yet,  Henry  L. 
Dawes  writes  that  Stanton,  after  becoming  Secretary  of 
War  under  Lincoln,  told  him  and  Mr.  Washburne  that 
President  Buchanan,  before  writing  his  annual  message, 
sent  for  him  "to  answer  the  question  'Can  a  State  be 
coerced  ? '  that  for  two  hours  he  battled,  and  finally  scat 
tered  for  the  time  being  the  heresies  with  which  seces 
sion  had  filled  the  head  of  that  old  broken-down  man ' ' ; 
furthermore,  at  the  President's  request  he  prepared  an 
argument  in  support  of  the  power  to  be  inserted  in  the 
forthcoming  message ;  that  it  was  so  inserted,  but  that  in 
his  absence  ' '  two  days  before  the  meeting  of  Congress ' 9 
"the  traitors  frightened"  the  President  into  expunging 


250    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

it  and  ' i  to  insert  in  its  place  the  contrary  doctrine. ' '  It 
is  hardly  necessary  to  say  that  of  such  a  paper  or  of  the 
draft  of  a  message  with  such  an  argument  in  it,  Black, 
then  Attorney-General,  according  to  his  own  state 
ment,  never  heard,  and  he  scouts  the  idea  of  any  such 
occurrence  as  absolutely  incredible,  considering  the  per 
sonal  character  and  official  habits  of  the  President  and 
under  the  known  circumstances  of  the  time.  * '  In  all  the 
discussions  on  the  subject,"  he  says,  Stanton  "did  not 
once  intimate  that  there  was,  or  ever  had  been,  the  slight 
est  difference  between  him  and  the  members  of  the  Ad 
ministration.  ' ' 

Congress  met  on  the  third  day  of  December,  and  the 
next  day  the  annual  message  was  sent  in.  On  the  eighth, 
Howell  Cobb  of  Georgia,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
resigned  and  Philip  F.  Thomas  of  Maryland  was  ap 
pointed  in  his  place.  On  the  fifteenth  Lewis  Cass,  the 
Secretary  of  State  (by  a  letter  dated  on  the  twelfth), 
resigned,  not  on  account  of  the  doctrine  of  the  message, 
but  because  the  President  and  the  rest  of  the  Cabinet 
did  not  concur  with  him  in  the  expediency  of  sending 
immediate  reinforcements  to  the  forts  in  Charleston 
harbour.  Attorney-General  Black  wTas  thereupon  pro 
moted  to  his  place,  and,  on  the  twentieth,  the  very  day 
South  Carolina  adopted  her  ordinance  of  secession,  Ed 
win  M.  Stanton  was  appointed  Attorney-General.  Ee- 
specting  this  appointment  Judge  Black  says : 

"I  strove  long,  and  at  last  successfully,  to  remove  the 
prejudices  of  Mr.  Buchanan  and  others  against  him,  because 
I  thought  them  unjust,  and  because  it  was  inconvenient  for 
me  that  the  President  should  not  trust  a  man  in  whom  I  had 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  251 

unlimited  confidence.  ...  I  caused  him  to  be  appointed 
Attorney  General  because  I  knew  (or  thought  I  knew)  that 
he  and  I  were  in  perfect  accord  on  all  questions,  and  be 
cause  I  was  sure  that  he  could  handle  them  not  only  with 
fidelity  but  with  consummate  skill.  But  though  he  was 
not  in  my  debt,  the  apparent  warmth  of  his  nature  impelled 
him  to  express  his  gratitude  in  most  exaggerated  language. 
.  .  .  lie  sometimes  overwhelmed  me  with  hyperbolical  de 
monstrations  of  thankfulness  and  friendship." 

Buchanan,  in  a  private  letter  to  his  niece  under  date 
of  January  16,  1862,  apropos  of  Stanton's  appointment 
as  Secretary  of  War  by  President  Lincoln,  writes : 

"I  appointed  him  Attorney  General  when  Judge  Black 
was  raised  to  the  State  Department  because  his  professional 
business  and  that  of  the  Judge's,  especially  in  California 
cases,  were  so  intimately  connected  that  he  could  proceed  in 
the  Supreme  'Court  without  delay.  He  is  a  sound,  clear 
headed,  persevering  and  practical  lawyer,  and  is  quite 
eminent,  especially  in  patent  cases.  He  is  not  well-versed 
in  public,  commercial  or  constitutional  law,  because  his 
professional  duties  as  a  country  lawyer  never  led  him  to 
make  these  his  study.  I  believe  him  to  be  a  perfectly 
honest  man,  and  in  that  respect  he  differs  from  -  — . 
He  never  took  much  part  in  Cabinet  councils  because  his 
office  did  not  require  it.  He  was  always  on  my  side,  and 
flattered  me  ad  nauseam. '  '* 

The  new  Attorney-General  was  hardly  warm  in  his 
seat  before  Major  Anderson's  transfer  of  his  forces 
from  Fort  Moultrie  to  Fort  Sumter  furnished  Floyd,  the 
Secretary  of  War,  a  pretext  for  handing  in  a  resigna- 

*  Curtis'  Life  of  Buchanan,  Vol.  2,  p.  522. 


252    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

tion  which  had  already  been  demanded  by  the  President 
on  other  grounds ;  and  Joseph  Holt,  Postmaster-General, 
was  promoted  to  his  place.  Thompson,  the  Secretary 
of  the  Interior,  followed  on  the  eighth  of  January,  whose 
place  was  not  filled ;  and  Thomas,  on  the  eleventh,  who 
was  succeeded  by  John  A.  Dix.  So  that,  for  the  greater 
part  of  the  period  up  to  the  fourth  of  March,  during 
which  Stanton  was  a  member  of  the  Cabinet  of  Bu 
chanan,  his  associates  were  Black,  Dix,  Holt,  Toucey  and 
Horatio  King,  the  assistant  Postmaster-General,  acting  in 
Holt's  place;  all  of  them  citizens  of  adhering  states,  and 
every  one  of  whom  has  borne  witness  to  the  masterful 
firmness,  impressive  dignity,  wise  caution,  enlightened 
statesmanship,  and  fervent  patriotism  of  his  chief. 
Black  speaks  of  his  protege's  relations  with  the  Presi 
dent  and  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  as  follows : 

''Mr.  Stanton  was  in  perfect  accord  with  the  Administra 
tion,  before  and  after  be  became  a  part  of  it,  on  every  ques 
tion  of  fundamental  principle.  He  had  unlimited  con 
fidence  in  the  men  with  whom  he  was  acting,  and  they 
confided  in  him.  For  his  chief  and  some  of  his  colleagues 
he  professed  an  attachment  literally  boundless;  for  all  of 
them  who  stayed  during  the  term,  and  for  Thompson  who 
did  not  stay,  he  was  warm  in  his  friendship."  "Stanton 
was  no  stormer  in  the  presence  of  such  men  as  he  then  had 
to  deal  with.  His  'language  was  habitually  deferential, 
his  whole  bearing  decent,  and  his  behavior  at  the  council- 
board  was  entirely  free  from  insolence."  "He  maintained 
unbroken  his  fraternal  relations  with  his  colleagues." 

Again,    speaking    of    Stanton 's    entrance    into    the 
Cabinet,  he  says : 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  253 

"His  language  glowed  with  gratitude,  his  words  spoke 
all  the  fervor  of  personal  devotion  to  his  chief  and  his 
colleagues ;  he  gave  his  thorough  approval  to  the  measures 
they  thought  necessary  to  preserve  the  unity  of  the  nation 
in  the  bonds  of  peace. 

"To  Mr.  Toucey's  face  Mr.  Stanton  breathed  no  syllable 
of  censure  upon  his  official  conduct  as  head  of  the  Navy 
Department.  To  the  President  or  Cabinet  he  expressed  no 
doubt  of  his  wisdom,  much  less  of  his  honesty.  He  met 
him  every  day  with  a  face  of  smiling  friendship." 

What  ought  to  be  conclusive  to  every  man  assuming 
to  be  a  judge  of  the  matter,  he  expressed  to  Mr.  Seward, 
as  Seward  himself  states,  "  entire  confidence  in  the  loy 
alty  of  the  President  and  of  the  heads  of  the  depart 
ments  who  remained  in  association  with  him  until  the 
close  of  that  administration. " 

And  yet  Seward  writes : 

"Immediately  after  Mr.  Stanton  took  office  he  put  him 
self  into  direct  communication  with  me  at  my  house,  em 
ploying  Mr.  Watson  for  that  purpose.  Every  day  thereafter 
until  the  inauguration  passed,  I  conferred  either  in  the 
morning  or  in  the  evening  or  both  with  Mr.  Stanton  through 
the  same  agency,  and  the  question  what  either  of  us  could 
or  ought  to  do  at  the  time  for  the  public  welfare  was  dis 
cussed  and  settled.  Mr.  Watson  often  brought  with  him 
suggestions  in  writing  from  Mr.  Stanton  and  returned  to 
Mr.  Stanton  with  mine.  .  .  .  One  day  as  I  was  riding 
through  F  Street  from  the  Capitol,  I  met  Mr.  Stanton  on 
foot.  We  recognized  each  other  and  a  hurried  explanation 
concerning  our  relations  .  .  .  took  place.  We  separated 
quickly,  from  the  motive  on  my  part,  and  I  suppose  on 


254    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

his,  of  avoiding  public  observation.  This  was  the  only 
occasion  as  I  remember,  on  which  I  met  Mr.  Stanton  until 
after  the  expiration  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  presidential  term." 

Sumner,  also,  writes  that  in  the  month  of  January, 
1861,  relying  on  the  remembrance  of  their  f ormer  friend 
ship,  he  called  on  the  Attorney-General  at  his  office  for 
information  and  counsel. 

"He  was  in  an  inner  room,  where  he  received  me  kindly, 
seeming  glad  to  see  me.  Looking  about  and  seeing  some 
body  in  the  room,  he  whispered  that  we  must  be  alone,  and 
then  passed  into  the  anteroom,  where  there  was  also  some 
body,  and  then  into  the  next  room  and  then  into  the  next, 
when,  finding  somebody  in  each  room,  he  opened  the  door 
into  the  corridor,  where  he  began  an  earnest  conversation, 
saying  that  he  must  see  me  alone,  that  this  was  impossible 
at  his  office,  that  he  was  watched  by  the  traitors  of  the 
South,  that  my  visit  would  be  made  known  to  them  at  once, 
and  he  concluded  by  proposing  to  call  at  my  lodgings  at  one 
o'clock  that  night,  when  he  would  tell  me  of  the  fearful 
condition  of  affairs  as  he  saw  them."  "He  came  at  one 
o'clock  that  night,  and  was  alone  with  me  for  an  hour"; 
describing  "the  plan"  of  "the  Southern  leaders"  "to  ob 
tain  possession  of  the  national  capital  and  the  national 
archives  so  that  they  might  substitute  themselves  for  the 
existing  government. ' ' 

Stanton,  however,  never  disclosed  to  the  President  or 
to  any  of  his  fellow-members  of  the  Cabinet,  that  he  was 
in  daily  communication  with  the  incoming  Secretary  of 
State,  or  the  "plan  of  the  Southern  leaders"  which  he 
confided  to  one  of  the  leading  enemies  of  the  adminis- 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  .  255 

tration,  of  which  he  was  a  part,  in  the  dead  hour  of  the 
night. 

According  to  Henry  Wilson,  '  *  he  put  himself  in  com 
munication  with  the  Republicans  in  Congress,  and  kept 
them  well  informed  of  what  was  going  on  in  the  coun 
cils  of  the  administration. ' '  "So  anxious ' '  was  he  "to 
baffle  the  conspirators,  that  he  made  an  arrangement 
with"  William  A.  Howard  and  Henry  L.  Dawes,  the 
radical  members  of  a  special  committee  appointed  "to 
investigate  treasonable  machinations  and  conspiracies" 
by  which  they  "were  informed  of  whatever  occurred 
tending  to  endanger  the  country  and  which  he  desired 
should  be  thwarted  by  the  friends  of  the  incoming  ad 
ministration. "  "He  believed  that  Mr.  Toucey,  Secre 
tary  of  the  Navy,  was  false  to  his  country,  and  that  he 
ought  to  be  arrested."  A  committee  of  vigilance  was 
organized  by  the  radicals,  of  which  Wilson  and  Colfax 
were  members,  and  at  that  time  Wilson  became  ac 
quainted  with  Stanton  "and  consulted  with  him,  and 
received  from  him  warnings  and  suggestions.  He  was 
in  almost  daily  consultations,  too,  with  members  of  both 
Houses.'"  According  to  Howard,  it  was  Stanton  who 
wrote  the  resolutions  providing  for  the  committee  intro 
duced  by  him  on  the  ninth  of  January,  1861  (the  com 
mittee  being  appointed  the  next  day),  which  in  terms 
were  directed  against  Cabinet  ministers ;  and,  according 
to  Dawes,  it  was  Stanton  who  inspired  the  resolution  of 
censure  on  Toucey.  Howard  testifies : 

' '  I  do  not  think  that  I  saw  Mr.  Stanton  any  time  between 
the  1st  of  January  and  the  4th  of  March,  1861 ;  but  I  think 
I  heard  from  him  more  times  than  there  were  days  in  those 


256    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

two  months.  .  .  .  We  were  put  upon  this  inquiry"  (as  to- 
the  acceptance  of  resignations  of  naval  officers  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  antedating  them,  for  which  he 
was  eventually  censured  by  the  House)  "by  information 
brought  to  us  by  a  'bird'  which  flew  directly  from  some 
Cabinet  minister  to  the  Committee  room."  "We  were 
more  than  once  told  that  it  would  probably  be  necessary  to 
arrest  a  certain  member  of  the  Cabinet  for  treason.  Once 
we  were  told  it  would  probably  have  to  be  within  an  hour, 
but  to  wait  until  we  could  hear  a  second  time.  Word 
came  to  hold  on.  Those  messages  certainly  came  from 
some  member  of  the  Cabinet. ' ' 

According  to  Dawes : 

"Some  of  the  most  important  and  secret  plans  of  the 
conspirators  became  known  and  were  thwarted  by  means 
of  communication  from  Mr.  Stanton  to  the  Committee." 
' '  Once  a  member  of  that  committee  read  by  the  light  of  the 
street  lamp  these  words:  'Secretary  -  -  is  a  traitor,  de 
pend  upon  it.  He  declared  in  Cabinet  to-day  that  he  did 
not  want  to  deliver  this  government  intact  into  the  hands 
of  the  black  Republicans.  Arrest  him  instantly  or  all  will 
be  lost.'  The  paper  went  back  to  its  hiding  place. but  the 
Secretary,  though  he  walked  the  streets  unmolested,  was 
watched  from  that  hour." 

Remembering  the  composition  of  the  Cabinet  after 
the  resignation  of  Thomas  on  the  eleventh  of  January, 
the  suspected  officer  could  have  been  no  other  than  Tou- 
cey.* 

*  My  authorities  for  the  foregoing  statements  and  extracts  concern 
ing  Stanton,  except  where  otherwise  indicated,  are:  1.  Henry  Wilson's 
papers  in  the  Atlantic  Monthly  for  February  and  October,  1S70.  2. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  257 

In  the  light  of  these  statements  and  counter-state 
ments  of  such  astonishing  discrepancy,  the  reader  will 
fully  appreciate  a  few  of  the  utterances  of  Stanton  him 
self.  After  the  close  of  Buchanan's  administration, 
every  member  of  his  Cabinet  who  continued  with  him 
to  the  last,  kept  up  a  friendly  and  confidential  corre 
spondence  with  the  ex-President.  Stanton  continued  to 
reside  in  Washington,  and,  on  the  tenth  of  March,  wrote 
to  his  late  chief,  at  Wheatland,  to  give  him  "as  full  in 
formation  as  I  possess  of  the  state  of  public  affairs  at 
Washington."  He  states: 

"At  the  depot,  on  the  afternoon  of  your  departure,  I 
parted  with  Mr.  Holt  and  Mr.  Toucey  and  I  have  not  seen 
them  since."  Mentioning  that  before  his  successor  had 
qualified,  he  had  drawn  up,  at  the  request  of  Mr.  Seward, 
a  nomination  of  Crittenden  for  "Judge  of  the  United 
States  Court,"  he  states  that  "the  general  understanding 
is  that  it  will  not  lc"  sent  in.  "The  rumor  is  that  the 
red  blacks  oppose  it,  and  also  many  Democrats,  and  that 
Mr.  Holt  will  be  nominated.  He  appears  now  to  be  the 
chief  favorite  with  the  Republicans."  Mr.  Seward  gave 
him  "some  comments  of  General  Scott's  on  the  report 
of  Mr.  Holt  in  relation  to  Major  Anderson  and  Fort 
Sumter, "  "the  remarkable  character"  of  which  induced 
him  to  obtain  permission  to  show  them  to  General  Dix  and 
to  procure  a  copy  if  possible,  for  his  correspondent.  He 
then  proceeds  to  point  out  "errors"  in  them;  among  the 
rest  that  Mr.  Toucey  was  unwilling  to  send  the  Brooklyn 
to  Charleston,  whereas  he  says :  ' '  My  understanding  is  that 

Black's  two  letters  in  reply,  first  printed  in  the  Galaxy  for  June,  1870, 
and  February,  1871,  and  republished  in  '  Black's  Speeches  and  Essays.' 
3.  Trial  of  Sickles   (pamphlet). 
17 


258    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Mr.  Toucey  wanted  to  send  the  Brooklyn,"  "but  that  Gen 
eral  Scott  and  Mr.  Holt  preferred"  sending  the  Star  of  the 
West,  "and  overruled  Mr.  Toucey";  also,  rebutting  the 
charge  that  "Mr.  Toucey  made  such  difficulty  about  fur 
nishing  the  ships,  that  the  relief  of  Major.  Anderson  was 
abandoned. ' '  He  writes  further :  ' '  Mr.  Seward  mentioned  to 
me  that  Mr.  Lincoln  and  his  Cabinet,  when  this  subject 
came  up"  (i.  e.,  Scott's  views)  "would  desire  me  to  be 
present,  and  also  Mr.  Holt.  I  told  him  that  if  all  of  the 
late  Cabinet  were  requested  to  be  present,  I  would  have 
no  objections,  but  I  did  not  think  it  proper  unless  all  were 
present,  He  said  of  course  an  invitation  would  be  ex 
tended  to  all."  Taking  up  another  topic  he  writes:  "I 
am  perfectly  satisfied  that  Major  Anderson  -will  be  with 
drawn.  ...  I  am  also  convinced  by  the  general  tone  pre 
vailing  here  that  there  is  not  the  least  design  to  attempt 
any  coercive  measures.  A  continuation  of  your  policy  to 
avoid  collision  will  be  the  course  of  the  present  administra 
tion." 

Under  the  date  of  the  twelfth  lie  writes : 

"It  is  now  the  universal  impression  in  this  city,  that 
Sumter  and  Pickens  will  both  be  surrendered.  ...  It  would 
not  surprise  me  to  see  Virginia  out  in  less  than  ninety  days 
and  Maryland  will  be  close  at  her  heels.  Lincoln  and  the 
family  at  the  White  House  are  represented  as  greatly 
elated  at  Douglas  joining  in  the  defence  of  the  new  admin 
istration." 

Under  the  date  of  the  fourteenth  he  writes  from  the 
Supreme  Court  room: 

"If  the  Court  ever  reassembles  there  will  be  a  con 
siderable  change  in  its  organization.  .  .  .  Lincoln  will 


EDWIN  M.  STANTON  259 

probably  (if  his  administration  continues  four,  years)  make 
a  change  that  will  affect  the  constitutional  doctrines  of  the 
Court." 

Under  the  date  of  the  sixteenth : 

"Every  day  affords  proof  of  the  absence  of  any  settled 
policy  or  harmonious  concert  of  action  in  the  administra 
tion.  Seward,  Bates  and  Cameron  form  one  wing;  Chase, 
Welles,  Blair  the  opposite  wing;  Smith  is  on  both  sides, 
and  Lincoln  sometimes  on  one  and  sometimes  on  the  other. 
There  has  been  agreement  in  nothing.  ...  I  do  not  believe 
there  will  be  much  further  effort  to  assail  you.  .  .  .  The 
embarrassments  which  surrounded  you  they  now  feel;  and 
whatever  may  be  said  against  you  must  recoil  as  an  argu 
ment  against  them.  And  in  giving  reasons  for  their  action, 
they  must  exhibit  facts  that  controlled  you  in  respect  to 
Sumter." 

In  another  letter  of  the  same  date  he  writes : 

"I  do  not  think  there  will  be  any  serious  effort  to  assail 
your  administration  in  respect  to  Fort  Sumter.  That 
would  imply  a  coercive  policy  on  their  part  and  hostility 
to  your  pacific  measures.  The  tendency  of  General  Scott's 
remarks  were  rather  to  impute  blame  to  Mr.  Toucey  than 
to  any  one  else.  And  as  Mr.  Holt  and  the  General  con 
curred  in  everything  done  or  written,  their  concurrence 
will  defend  you. ' ' 

"I  shall  write  to  you  often  and  apprise  you  of  what  is 
going  on." 

April  3  he  writes : 


260    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

"Mr.  Toucey  left  here  last  week."  ''There  has  been 
a  rumor  for  the  last  two  or  three  days,  that,  notwithstand 
ing  all  that  has  been  said,  there  will  be  an  effort  to  rein 
force  Fort  Sumter;  but  I  do  not  believe  a  word  of  it.  .  .  . 
The  first  month  of  the  administration  seems  to  have  fur 
nished  an  ample  vindication  of  your  policy,  and  to  have 
rendered  all  occasion  of  other  defence  needless." 

On  the  tenth : 

"I  send  you  a  copy  of  General  Scott's  views,  etc." 
"Doctor  Gwin  has  just  returned  from  Mississippi.  He 
speaks  with  great  confidence  of  the  stability  and  power  of 
the  Confederacy,  and  evidently  sympathizes  strongly  with 
them." 

"Apprehensions  are  entertained  of  a  hostile  attack  upon 
Washington.  But  I  think  that  apprehension  is  as  ground 
less  as  the  rumor  that  hurried  Lincoln  from  .Harrisburg  to 
Washington. ' ' 

P.  S.  12  o'clock:  "It  is  certain  that  the  administration 
is  panic  stricken  from  some  cause.  ...  It  is  now  reported 
.  .  .  that  the  batteries  have  opened  on  Sumter.  Soldiers 
are  being  placed  in  the  departments." 

On  the  eleventh : 

"There  is  great  'soldiering'  in  town  the  last  two  days. 
.  .  .  The  feeling  of  loyalty  to  the  Government  has  greatly 
diminished  in  this  city.  Many  persons  who  would  have 
supported  the  Government  under  your  administration  re 
fuse  to  be  enrolled.  Many  who  were  enrolled  have  with 
drawn,  and  refuse  to  take  the  oath.  The  administration 
has  not  acquired  the  confidence  and  respect  of  the  people 
here.  Not  one  of  the  Cabinet  or  principal  officers  has 
taken  a  house  or  brought  his  family  here.  Seward  rented 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  261 

a  house  'while  he  should  continue  in  the  Cabinet'  but  has 
not  opened  it,  nor  has  his  family  come.  They  all  act  as 
though  they  meant  to  be  ready  'to  cut  and  run'  at  a 
minute's  notice — their  tenure  is  like  that  of  a  Bedouin  on 
the  sands  of  the  desert.  .  .  .  And,  besides,  a  strong  feeling 
of  distrust  in  the  candor  and  sincerity  of  Lincoln  personally, 
and  of  his  Cabinet  has  sprung  up.  If  they  had  been 
merely  silent  and  secret,  there  might  have  been  no  ground 
of  complaint.  But  assurances  are  said  to  have  been  given 
and  declarations  made  in  conflict  with  the  facts  now  trans 
piring  in  the  South,  so  that  no  one  speaks  of  Lincoln  or  any 
member  of  his  Cabinet  with  respect  or  regard." 

The  next  day: 

"We  have  the  war  upon  us.  .  .  .  The  impression  here  is 
held  by  many :  1st,  that  the  effort  to  reinforce  will  be  a 
failure;  2nd,  that  in  less  than  twenty  four  hours  from  this 
time,  Anderson  will  have  surrendered ;  3rd,  that  in  less  than 
thirty  days  Davis  will  be  in  possession  of  Washington." 

On  May  sixteenth,  be  writes : 

"The  fling  cf  Mr.  F.  W.  Seward  about  'negotiations'  " 
(a  remark  "that  the  days  for  such  things  had  passed  away 
since  the  4th  of  March")  "would  merit  a  retort  if  there 
were  an  independent  press  and  the  state  of  the  times  ad 
mitted  discussion  of  such  matters.  The  negotiations  car 
ried  on  by  Mr.  Seward  with  the  Confederate  Commissioners 
through  Judge  Campbell  and  Judge  Nelson  will,  some  day, 
perhaps,  be  brought  to  light,  and  if  they  were  as  has  been 
represented  to  me,  Mr.  Seward  and  the  Lincoln  administra 
tion  will  not  be  in  a  position  to  make  sneering  observations 
respecting  any  negotiations  during  your  administration." 


262    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

..  .  .  ''No  description  could  convey  to  you  the  panic  that 
prevailed  here  for  several  days  after  the  Baltimore  riot, 
and  before  communications  were  reopened.  This  was  in 
creased  by  the  reports  of  the  trepidation  of  Lincoln  that 
were  circulated  through  the  streets.  ...  In  the  present 
state  of  affairs  I  do  not  like  to  leave  home,  or  I  would  pay 
you  a  visit." 

On  the  eighth  of  June  he  writes : 

"No  sooner  had  the  appearance  of  imminent  danger 
passed  away,  and  the  administration  recovered  from  its 
panic,  than  a  determination  became  manifest  to  give  a  strict 
party  direction,  as  far  as  possible,  to  the  great  national 
movement.  After  a  few  Democratic  appointments,  such 
as  Butler  and  Dix,  everything  else  has  been  exclusively 
devoted  to  Black  Republican  interests.  .  .  .  General  Dix 
informs  me  that  he  has  been  so  badly  treated  by  Cameron, 
and  so  disgusted  by  the  general  course  of  the  Administra 
tion,  that  he  intends  immediately  to  resign.  .  .  .  Indeed, 
the  course  of  things  for  the  last  four  weeks  has  been  such  as 
to  excite  distrust  in  every  Department  of  the  Government." 


j  •> 


On  July  16,  with  reference  to  a  "historical  sketch 
of  the  close  of  his  administration,  which  Buchanan  had 
written  and  sent  to  members  of  his  Cabinet,  Stanton 
writes : 

"Last  evening  Judge  Black  and  General  Dix  met  at  my 
house,  and  we  consulted  together  with  regard  to  it.  We 
concur  in  opinion  that  a  publication  at  present  would  accom 
plish  no  good.  The  public  mind  is  too  much  excited, ' '  etc. 
"The  narrative  appears  to  me  to  be  a  clear  and  accurate 
statement  of  the  events  of  the  period  to  which  it  relates 
with  one  exception  of  no  national  consequence.  .  .  .  ' 


EDAVIN  M.   STANTON  263 

"So  far,  however,  as  your  administration  is  concerned, 
its  policy  in  reference  to  both  Sumter  and  Pickens  is  fully 
vindicated  by  the  course  of  the  present  Administration  for 
forty  days  after  the  inauguration  of  Lincoln. 

"I  think  the  public  will  be  disposed  to  do  full  justice  to 
your  efforts  to  avert  the  calamity  of  civil  war.  .  .  .  General 
Dix  is  still  here.  He  has  been  shamefully  treated  by  the 
Administration. ' ' 

His  comments  on  Bull  Run,  under  date  of  July  26, 
may  close  the  correspondence : 

"The  dreadful  disaster  of  Sunday  can  scarcely  be  men 
tioned.  The  imbecility  of  this  Administration  culminated 
in  that  catastrophe ;  an  irretrievable  misfortune  and  national 
disgrace  never,  to  be  forgotten  are  to  be  added  to  the  ruin  of 
all  peaceful  pursuits  and  national  bankruptcy,  as  the  result 
of  Lincoln's  ' running  the  machine'  for  five  months.  .  .  . 
It  is  not  unlikely  that  some  change  in  the  War  and  Navy 
departments  may  take  place,  but  none  beyond  those  two 
Departments  until  Jeff.  Davis  turns  out  the  whole  concern. 
The  capture  of  Washington  seems  now  inevitable.  .  .  . 
While  Lincoln,  Scott  and  the  Cabinet  are  disputing  who  are 
to  blame,  the  city  is  unguarded  and  the  enemy  at  hand. 
Gen.  McClellan  reached  here  last  evening.  But  if  he  had 
the  ability  of  Caesar,  Alexander  or  Napoleon,  what  can  he 
accomplish?  Will  not  Scott's  jealousy,  Cabinet  intrigues, 
and  Republican  interference  thwart  him  at  every  step  ? '  '* 

After  reading  the  foregoing  extracts,  it  will  be  easier 
to  credit  the  statements  of  Judge  Black : 

*  The  foregoing  extracts  arc  taken  from  Chap.  XXVII  of  Vol.  2  of 
Curtis'  Life  of  Buchanan. 


264    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

"His  (Stanton's)  democracy  did  not  cease  when  the  War 
opened.  In  the  summer  of  1861  when  the  'anti-constitu 
tional  principles'  "  (of  the  Republican  party)  "began  to 
be  practically  carried  out  by  the  kidnapping  of  innocent 
citizens,  by  the  suppression  of  free  speech,  and  by  the  en 
slavement  of  the  press,  he  imprecated  the  vengeance  of  God 
and  the  law  upon  the  guilty  authors  of  those  crimes  with 
as  much  energy  as  any  Democrat  in  the  nation.  Only  a 
short  time  before  his  appointment  as  Secretary  of  War  his 
love  of  liberty  and  legal  justice  impelled  him  to  curse  Mr. 
Lincoln  himself  with  bitter  curses.  He  called  him  con 
temptuous  names,  and  with  simian,  if  not  with  'swinish 
phrase,  soiled  his  addition.'  "* 

The  next  moment  we  catch  sight  of  this  duplex  figure 
is  on  the  eve  of  the  meeting  of  Congress  in  December, 
1861,  when  we  find  him  "cordially  indorsing"  an  "im 
portant  passage ' '  in  Secretary  Cameron 's  annual  report 
' t  recommending  the  freeing  and  arming  of  the  slaves, ' ' 
which  that  Cabinet  officer,  deeming  it  "a  delicate  mat 
ter"— too  far  advanced  as  yet — submitted  in  confidence 
to  ' '  several  of  his  friends, ' '  all  of  whom  ' i  disapproved 
of  the  policy ' '  except  Stan  ton  who,  so  intimate  were  the 
two  men  according  to  Cameron,  "taking  his  pen,  modi 
fied  one  or  two  sentences,  remarking  that  he  would  fix 
it  so  that  the  lawyers  will  not  carp  at  it."  The  "im 
portant  passage,"  we  are  informed,  "did  not  meet  the 
views  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  and  he  required  its  suppression. ' ' 
And  so  it  happened  in  the  following  January  when 
Cameron  was  gently  pressed  out  of  the  Cabinet,  the 
whilom  Attorney-General  of  Buchanan's  Administra- 

*  June  Galaxy,  1870. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  265 

lion  was  made  Secretary  of  War  of  Lincoln's  at  the  sug 
gestion  of  his  predecessor  in  that  department,  whose 
radicalism,  though  too  strong  as  yet  for  the  President, 
he  so  heartily  shared.  While  the  appointment  was  yet 
in  abeyance,  Cameron  gave  a  breakfast  in  honour  of  his 
contemplated  successor  to  which  senators  Chandler  and 
Wade  were  invited.  Chandler  had  "never  met"  the 
coming  favourite  before,  while  Wade  had  enjoyed  a 
"long  acquaintance";  but  both  were  "much  pleased 
with  the  suggestion"  of  the  appointment  which,  it  ap 
pears,  if  offered,  their  modest  guest  "reluctantly  gave" 
them  "to  understand  he  would  accept."  President 
Lincoln,  according  to  Cameron,  also  "hesitated;  but 
after  listening  to  me  (him)  for  a  time,  he  yielded." 
When  the  nomination  of  Edwin  M.  Stanton  was  an 
nounced  in  the  Senate,  Sumner  rose  at  once  and  declared 
"within  my  knowledge  he  is  one  of  us." 

It  is  unnecessary  for  our  purpose  to  dwell  on  his  offi 
cial  career  during  the  years  of  actual  conflict.  That  he 
discharged  the  onerous  duties  of  his  department  with 
great  ability,  energy  and  promptitude  will  not  be  ques 
tioned.  But  to  call  him  a  great  War-minister  like  the 
elder  Pitt  is  a  manifest  exaggeration.  His  position  had 
nothing  in  common  with  that  of  a  great  statesman 
moulding  and  carrying  out  a  national  policy  in  the  con 
duct  of  a  great  war.  Nor  does  he  rise  to  the  same  grade 
as  the  French  i '  organizer  of  victory ' '  who  won  that  title 
more  by  strategic  combinations  with  different  armies, 
than  by  the  manipulation  of  regiments  and  the  prompt 
supply  of  the  sinews  of  war.  Stanton 's  labours  were 

*  Wilson  in  Atlantic  Monthly  for  October,  1870. 


266   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

confined  to  the  routine  work  appertaining  to  his  depart 
ment,  which  he  drove  along  with  a  rampant  energy, 
oftentimes,  in  his  relations  with  subordinates  or  with 
persons  unfortunate  enough  to  come  into  collision  with 
him,  degenerating  into  downright  brutality. 

General  Grant,  in  his  Memoirs,  comparing  Lincoln 
with  Stanton,  says: 

"They  were  the  very  opposite  of  each  other  in  almost 
every  particular,  except  that  each  possessed  great  ability. 
Mr.  Lincoln  gained  influence  over  men  by  making  them  feel 
that  it  was.  a  pleasure  to  serve  them.  ...  It  distressed  him 
to  disappoint  others.  In  matters  of  public  duty,  however, 
he  had  what  he  wished,  but  in  the  least  offensive  way.  Mr. 
Stanton  never  questioned  his  own  authority  to  command 
unless  resisted.  He  cared  nothing  for  the  feelings  of  others. 
In  fact  it  seemed  to  be  pleasanter  to  him  to  disappoint  than 
to  gratify.  He  felt  no  hesitation  in  assuming  the  functions 
of  the  Executive,  or  in  acting  without  advising  him.  If 
his  act  was  not  sustained  he  would  change  it— if  he  saw  the 
matter  would  be  followed  up  until  he  did  so."  And  fur 
ther:  "The  Secretary  was  very  timid,  and  it  was  impos 
sible  for  him  to  avoid  interfering  with  the  armies  covering 
the  capital  when  it  was  sought  to  defend  it  by  an  offensive 
movement  against  the  army  guarding  the  Confederate 
capital.  He  could  see  our  weakness  but  he  could  not  see 
that  the  enemy  was  in  danger.  The  enemy  would  not  have 
been  in  danger  if  Mr.  Stanton  had  been  in  the  field."* 

Although  Stanton  appears  to  have  been  very  often  a 
thorn  in  the  flesh  to  his  great  chief,  still,  during  the 
three  years  and  over  of  his  service,  he  kept  himself  safe 

*  Personal  Memoirs  of  U.  S.  Grant,  Vol.  2,  pp.  536-7. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  267 

within  the  circle  of  the  President 's  widening  popularity. 
He  did  not  follow  Chase,  his  early  friend  and  now  his 
colleague,  into  open  disaffection.  Indeed,  at  the  time 
of  the  creation  of  the  Freedmen  's  Bureau,  there  appears 
to  have  been  going  on  a  certain  rivalry  between  the  de 
partments  of  the  Treasury  and  of  War ;  Sumner  favour 
ing  the  giving  over  of  the  freedmen  to  the  care  of  Chase, 
while  Wilson  still  clung  to  the  "intense  and  abounding 
patriotism"  of  the  man  who,  when  a  boy,  sat  upon  the 
knee  of  Lundy,  and,  when  a  young  man,  surrendered  to 
the  arguments  of  Weld.  Whether  he  secretly  assured 
Wade  and  Henry  Winter  Davis  of  his  sympathy  with 
their  revolt  in  1864,  we  have  as  yet  no  private  corre 
spondence  or  memoirs  to  show,  but,  so  far  as  his  public 
actions  are  concerned,  he  stood  firmly  by  Lincoln 's  plan 
of  reconstruction.  We  know  that  he  still  kept  up  the 
secret  alliance  which  dated  so  long  back;  for,  on  the 
Sunday  night  succeeding  Lincoln's  death,  as  we  have 
seen,  he  was  holding  a  conclave  with  Sumner,  Dawes, 
Coif  ax,  Covode  and  several  others,  reading  "Cabinet 
papers  not  as  yet  matured"  relating  to  reconstruction, 
and  allowing  Sumner  and  Colfax  to  interpolate  into  the 
executive  order  Stanton  had  prepared  for  submission 
to  the  Cabinet  "a  paragraph  on  the  subject  of  suffrage" 
satisfactory  to  them.* 

Such  was  the  protean  personage  who,  through  all  the 
vicissitudes  of  the  bitter  conflict  between  the  Congress 
and  the  President  and  the  consequent  open  schism  in 
the  party,  had  hitherto  managed  to  keep  his  place  at  the 
head  of  the  department  of  War.  There  is  no  evidence 

*  Supra,  Section  I,  p.  15. 


268    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

that  he  opposed  a  single  step  taken  by  the  President  in 
the  reconstruction  of  the  Southern  states  or  in  the  recon 
ciliation  of  the  Southern  people.  Every  measure  that 
provoked  the  angry  censure  of  the  radicals  and,  at 
length,  threats  of  impeachment,  was  apparently  sup 
ported  by  him  or  acquiesced  in  without  opposition. 
Even  after  the  breach  became  open  on  account  of  the 
President's  speech  on  the  twenty-second  of  February, 
1866,  there  is  nothing  to  show  that  he  did  not  take  his 
stand  on  the  side  of  his  chief.  He  enshrouded  himself 
as  much  as  possible  in  the  official  secrecy  of  the  Cabinet, 
but  a  serenade  by  a  Johnson  Club  in  May  of  the  same 
year  forced  him  with  other  members  of  the  Cabinet  to 
declare  himself  to  some  extent.  The  speech  he  made 
was  carefully  prepared— written  out  and  read,  in  fact. 
At  first,  he  said,  he  was  inclined  to  the  view  that  some 
sort  of  coloured  suffrage  should  be  incorporated  in  the 
reconstruction  measures,  but  he  had  yielded  and  given 
a  "cordial  acquiescence"  to  the  plan  of  the  President. 
He  could  not  approve  of  the  fourteenth  amendment  of 
the  joint  committee  because  of  the  third  section  (at  that 
particular  date  disfranchising  classes  of  southern  whites 
until  1870).  He  advised  approval  of  the  Freedmen's 
Bureau  bill ;  but  it  was  now  dead  by  the  veto  and,  there 
fore,  had  ceased  to  be  a  subject  of  dispute.  The  civil 
rights  bill,  on  the  contrary,  was  now  a  law  and,  there 
fore,  of  course  not  subject  to  debate.  Though  he  could 
not  approve  the  plan  of  the  joint  committee  he  acknowl 
edged  that  Congress  was  the  ultimate  judge.*  His  tes- 

*  Speech    in   Washington   Newspapers.       See    Globe,    1st    Sess.    39th 
Cong.,  p.  2960. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  269 

timony  before  the  Impeachment  committee  revealed  the 
same  state  of  affairs  during  the  previous  two  years,  viz., 
the  absence  of  all  opposition  on  his  part  to  the  course  of 
the  administration.     It  is  clear  that  whatever  may  have 
been  his  real  feelings  he  must  have  effectually  sup 
pressed  all  serious  persistent  objections,  else  he  would 
long  ago  have  been  removed  from  his  place  by  the  Presi 
dent  who,  up  to  the  passage  of  the  Tenure-of-office  act, 
possessed  the  unquestioned  right  to  dispense  with  the 
society  of  a  Cabinet  officer  who  thwarted  his  policy. 
Johnson,  as  it  appears,  never  liked  him,  for  a  long  time 
9istrusted  him,  and  may  have  suspected  him  of  having 
underhand  dealings  with  his  adversaries.     But  he  was 
loth  to  disturb  any  member  of  the  Cabinet  of  Lincoln, 
or  to  turn  out  of  office  a  single  incumbent  appointed  by 
his  predecessor  who  stopped  short  of  publicly  denounc 
ing  his  policy  or  reviling  his  person.     In  the  summer  of 
1866,  Dennison  and  Speed  and  Harlan  found  their  want 
of  agreement  with  their  official  chief  an  insuperable 
objection  to  their  remaining  any  longer,  and  they,  one 
after  another,  voluntarily  retired.     But  Stanton  .staid 
on.     Even  down  to  a  period  as  late  as  the  passage  of  the 
Tenure-of-office  bill,  he  must  have  still  maintained  his 
attitude  of  acquiescence,  at  least,  in  the  course  of  the 
administration,  and  of  friendliness  to  the  President,  as 
he  was  requested  to  write  the  message  to  accompany  the 
veto  of  that  bill,  on  account  of  the  clearness  with  which 
he  demonstrated  its  unconstitutionally.     Yet,  notwith 
standing  all  this,  from  the  very  beginning  of  his  term 
he  appears  to  have  enjoyed  the  confidence  of  the  very 
men  who  were  assailing  his  chief  with  the  bitterest  epi- 


270  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

tliets.  The  radicals  regarded  him  as  their  trusty  out 
post  in  the  camp  of  the  enemy.  His  ostensible  agree 
ment  with  the  'Apostate'  seems  to  have  troubled  them 
not  at  all.  They  implored  him  to  stay.  They  depre 
cated  his  resignation.  They  were  in  daily  fear  of  his 
dismissal.  They  must  have  counseled  him  to  simulate 
acquiescence  in  the  policy  they  detested  in  order  to  re 
main  where  he  was.  Seward  continued  on,  and  Welles, 
and  McCulloch,  of  the  old  Cabinet  of  Lincoln ;  but  none 
of  them  left  room  for  doubt  of  his  fidelity  to  his  chief, 
and  each  of  them  was  the  mark  of  radical  abuse.  Stan- 
ton,  alone,  sitting  alongside  of  them  at  the  council-table 
of  the  President  and  voting  with  them,  continued  to  be 
the  object  of  the  tenderest  regard  to  the  most  implacable 
opponents  of  the  administration.  His  secret  allies  de 
vised  the  proviso  in  the  first  section  of  the  Tenure  bill 
to  force  the  President  to  keep  their  spy  in  the  midst  of 
his  official  household ;  and,  as  soon  as  that  bill  became  a 
law,  his  attitude  of  masterly  passivity  underwent  a 
change.  The  mask  he  had  worn  for  two  years  was  grad 
ually  withdrawn.  He  let  it  be  known  to  the  President 
and  his  associates  that  he  could  not  go  with  them  in 
approving  the  veto  of  the  main  reconstruction  act,  some 
of  the  most  stinging  paragraphs  of  which  his  early 
friend  and  benefactor,  Judge  Black,  had  written.  After 
the  first  supplementary  act  was  passed,  he  waxed  louder 
in  his  opposition.  The  surer  he  felt  of  his  position  the 
more  defiant  in  his  disagreement  he  became  and  the 
more  offensive  in  his  manner.  In  the  Cabinet  meeting 
on  the  twenty-first  of  June,  which  endorsed  the  Attor 
ney-General,  settled  the  course  of  the  administration 


EDWIN   M.    ST ANTON  271 

and  brought  the  members  of  Congress  hurrying  across 
the  country  to  the  July  session,  he  stood  out  the  one 
uncompromising  dissentient.  When  the  Congress  sent 
to  the  President  the  second  supplementary  act,  he  re 
garded  the  complete  prostration  of  the  South  under  the 
heel  of  the  military  as  an  endorsement  of  his  revolt. 
The  harmony  of  the  Cabinet  was  at  an  end.  The  Presi 
dent  began  to  throw  out  hints  that  the  proper  place  of  an 
opponent  of  his  policy  was  outside  the  inner  circle  of 
the  administration,  that  the  confidential  servant  of  the 
radicals  could  not  consistently  with  his  own  honour  play 
the  role  of  confidential  adviser  of  the  President.  But  he 
soon  ascertained  that  hints,  which  in  such  a  delicate  rela 
tion  had  heretofore  been  effectual,  in  this  instance  and 
upon  this  officer  were  thrown  away.  The  unpleasant 
discovery  gradually  dawned  upon  his  mind  that  the  one 
of  his  confidential  advisers  in  whom  he  had  lost  all  con 
fidence  intended  with  undreamt-of  hardihood  to  repu 
diate  his  own  well-known  opinion  of  the  Tenure-of-office 
act  and,  taking  refuge  behind  its  provisions,  to  thrust 
his  offensive  presence  and  antagonistic  principles  upon 
the  council-table  of  the  administration.  AVhen  their  re 
lations  had  come  to  such  a  pass  there  could  be  but  one 
issue  with  such  a  man  as  Johnson.  In  his  subsequent 
communication  to  the  Senate  he  quietly  says :  "I  had 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  time  had  arrived  when  it 
was  proper  Mr.  Stanton  should  retire  from  my  Cabinet. 
The  mutual  confidence  and  accord  which  should  exist  in 
such  a  relation  had  ceased/'  Sheridan's  course,  too, 
continued  to  run  counter  to  the  President's  instructions, 
and  on  the  thirtieth  of  July  by  an  imperial  edict  that 


272  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

commander  decapitated  Throckmorton,  the  governor 
elected  by  the  people  of  the  reconstructed  state  of  Texas, 
and  appointed  Pease,  the  defeated  candidate  for  that 
office,  in  his  place.  On  the  first  day  of  August,  1867,  in 
a  personal  interview,  the  President  told  General  Grant 
that  he  could  no  longer  tolerate  Stanton  in  his  Cabinet 
and  was  contemplating  the  removal  of  Sheridan.  Grant 
endeavoured  to  dissuade  him,  especially  on  behalf  of  his 
favourite  subordinate;  and,  after  the  interview  and  on 
the  same  day,  in  a  private  letter  addressed  to  the  Presi 
dent  protested  against  "the  removal  of  the  very  able 
commander  of  the  fifth  military  district ' '  and  expressed 
his  disapproval  of  the  removal  of  Stanton  in  these 
words :  ' '  His  removal  cannot  be  effected  against  his  will 
without  the  consent  of  the  Senate.  ...  It  certainly  was 
the  intention  of  the  legislative  branch  of  the  Government 
to  place  cabinet  ministers  beyond  the  power  of  Execu 
tive  removal  and  it  is  pretty  well  understood  that"  the 
act  "was  intended  specially  to  protect  the  Secretary  of 
War."  This  letter,  clothed  in  such  positive  terms  and 
signed  by  the  most  renowned  name  in  the  country,  could 
not  have  been  without  effect,  and  the  President  paused, 
perplexed  in  the  extreme.  The  first  day  of  August— 
the  date  of  the  letter— was  Thursday.  On  Monday,  the 
fifth,  something  happened. 

The  trial  of  John  H.  Surratt  for  the  murder  of  Abra- 

*  See  letter  in  McPh.  Recon.,  p.  307  n.  And  yet  Gen.  Schofield  states 
that  at  the  date  of  this  letter  Gen.  Grant,  in  Richmond,  Va.,  "in  the 
most  emphatic  terms  announced  his  intention  to  demand,  on  his  return 
to  Washington,  that  the  President  either  remove  Stanton  or  accept  his 
(General  Grant's)  resignation."  Art.  "Controversies  in  the  War  De 
partment,"  Century  Magazine  for  August,  1897. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  273 

ham  Lincoln  began  in  the  city  of  Washington  on  Mon 
day  the  tenth  day  of  June,  1867,  and  the  testimony  closed 
on  Saturday  the  twenty-sixth  day  of  July.  On  the 
first  day  of  August,  Mr.  Merrick,  one  of  the  counsel  for 
the  prisoner,  was  addressing  the  jury.  Ever  since  the 
execution  of  Mrs.  Surratt,  a  rumour  that  five  members  of 
the  military  commission  that  tried  her  had  signed  a 
petition  to  the  President  recommending  a  commutation 
of  the  death-sentence  had  been  flying  about.  No  such 
document  had  ever  been  published,  although  an  author 
ized  report  of  the  trial,  including  the  several  verdicts, 
sentences  and  the  President's  approval,  was  printed  with 
the  certificate  of  the  proper  officer  to  its  accuracy;  but 
still  the  rumour  lived  on.  In  allusion  to  this  story  and  to 
a  promise  made  by  the  prosecution  at  the  opening  of  the 
case  to  set  this  question  at  rest,  Mr.  Merrick,  in  the 
course  of  his  speech,  pressed  the  query :  * '  Where  is  your 
record  ?  Why  didn  't  you  bring  it  in  ?  Did  you  find  at 
the  end  ...  a  recommendation  to  mercy  .  .  .  that  the 
President  never  saw?"  Stirred  by  this  taunt  Edwards 
Pierrepont,  the  leading  counsel  for  the  United  States, 
immediately  sent  to  Joseph  Holt,  the  Judge- Advocate- 
General,  for  the  original  record ;  and  it  was  brought  to 
him  in  the  court-room  by  Holt  himself  who  related  to 
Pierrepont  in  the  presence  of  " three  gentlemen"  its 
history.  The  next  day,  Mr.  Bradley,  the  senior  counsel, 
in  summing  up  for  the  prisoner,  recurred  to  the  failure 
of  the  government  to  produce  the  mysterious  paper. 
So  that  when,  on  Saturday  (the  third),  Pierrepont  rose 
to  make  the  closing  argument,  he  felt  himself  bound,  and 
not  only  bound  but  able,  to  give  a  conclusive  answer  to 

18 


274    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  sneers  of  his  adversaries.     Holding  in  his  hand  the 
record,  he  made  this  explicit  statement: 

"President  Johnson,  when  the  record  was  presented  to 
,  him,  laid  it  before  his  Cabinet,  and  every  single  member 
voted  to  confirm  the  sentence  and  the  President  with  his 
own  hand  wrote  his  confirmation  of  it,  and  with  his  own 
hand  signed  the  warrant.  No  other  one  touched  this  paper, 
and  when  it  was  suggested  by  some  members  of  the  com 
mission  that  in  consequence  of  the  age  and  sex  of  Mrs. 
Surratt  it  might  possibly  be  well  to  change  her  sentence  to 
imprisonment  for  life,  he  signed  the  warrant  for  her  death 
with  the  paper  right  before  his  eyes— and  there  it  is." 

That  same  afternoon  Judge  Holt  came  back  to  the 
court-room  to  reclaim  the  paper  and  repeated  its  history 
as  he  had  told  it  before  and  which  Pierrepont  had  just 
rehearsed  to  the  jury.* 

The  Sunday  morning  papers  carried  this  declaration 
to  the  White  House ;  and,  in  consequence,  on  the  morn 
ing  of  Monday,  the  fifth,  the  President  sent  to  the  Secre 
tary  of  War  for  ' '  the  findings  and  sentence  of  the  con 
spiracy  trial. ' '  When  the  message  came  General  Grant 
happened  to  be  at  the  War  Office,  and  Stanton  in  his 
presence  sent  for  the  officer  in  charge  of  the  Bureau  of 
Military  Justice  (Judge  Holt  being  temporarily  absent) 
and  ordered  him  to  take  the  record  to  the  President.  On 
its  arrival  at  the  White  House  it  was  subjected  to  a 
" careful  scrutiny"  and  the  President  discovered  that, 
underneath  the  signature  of  the  presiding  officer  of  the 

*Trial  of  John  H.  Surratt  (official),  Vol.  1,  p.  27;  Vol.  2,  pp. 
1207,  1237,  1249. 


EDWIN   M.    STANTON  275 

commission  formally  countersigning  the  record,  Judge 
Holt  had  written  on  the  death-warrant  in  such  a  place 
that,  when  handed  to  the  President  for  signature,  any 
paper  coming  after  it  would  be  likely  to  escape  his  ob 
servation  ;  and  that,  there  hanging  as  a  superfluous  leaf 
to  the  record  proper,  was,  in  very  truth,  a  petition  signed 
by  five  members  of  the  commission  praying  the  Presi 
dent,  in  consideration  of  the  sex  and  age  of  Mary  E. 
Surratt,  "if  he  can  find  it  consistent  with  his  sense  of 
duty  to  the  country/7  to  commute  the  sentence  of  death 
to  imprisonment  in  the  penitentiary  for  life.  That  fly 
ing  leaf,  the  President  instantly  declared  he  had  never 
seen  or  heard  of  before.  He  was  convinced  that  it  was 
not  with  the  record  when  submitted  for  his  approval. 
Judge  Holt,  he  remembered,  had  brought  the  record  to 
him  in  a  private  interview,  had  written  out  the  warrant 
in  his  presence,  presented  to  him  for  signature  and  car 
ried  the  record  away;  so  that  Holt,  surely,  must  have 
been  a  party  to  the  imposition.  And,  if  the  Judge- 
Advocate  was  guilty,  the  Secretary  of  War  must  have 
either  contrived,  or  connived  at,  the  suppression ;  for  who 
can  believe  a  subordinate  would  dare  to  perpetrate  so 
deadly  a  fraud  without  the  knowledge  of  the  head  of  the 
Department?  The  President  had  been  hood-winked  in 
to  signing  the  death-warrant  of  a  woman  whose  life  he 
might  otherwise  have  spared.  As  he  well  knew,  no  such 
paper  was  ever  laid  before,  much  less  considered  by,  his 
Cabinet  of  that  date,  and  a  summons  to  Seward,  Welles 
and  McCulloch  (the  only  remaining  members  beside 
Stan  ton)  would  demonstrate  the  falsehood  of  that  part 
of  Holt's  story.  But,  as  it  happened,  the  testimony  of 


276    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

these  officers  was  rendered  unnecessary  by  Pierrepont 
himself.  Continuing  his  address  all  day  Monday  with 
out  recurring  to  his  statement  of  Saturday,  on  Tuesday 
(the  sixth),  as  though  in  the  meantime  he  had  been 
warned  of  his  error,  he  went  out  of  his  way  to  repeat 
that  statement  as  if  word  for  word,  and  yet,  in  repeating 
it,  he  omitted  all  mention  of  the  Cabinet  and  of  the  pres 
ence  of  the  paper  before  the  Cabinet  officers.* 

At  so  critical  a  juncture  as  this,  what  stand  Stanton 
took,  whether  he  threw  his  shield  over  his  hard-pressed 
subordinate,  resolved*  to  support  him  in  his  assevera 
tions  that  the  "identical  paper"  was  "right  before  the 
eyes ' '  of  the  President,  we  do  not  positively  know :  But 
this  much  we  do  know.  The  request  for  the  record  was 
made  by  the  President  to  Stanton  as  Secretary  of  War ; 
Stanton  as  Secretary  of  War  transmitted  the  record  to 
the  President  on  the  morning  of  the  fifth;  and  on  the 
same  day  Stanton  received  the  following  missive : 

' '  Sir :  Public  considerations  of  a  high  character  constrain 
me  to  say  that  your  resignation  as  Secretary  of  War  will 

be  accepted. 

"Andrew  Johnson 

President  of  the  United  States." 

*  See  original  record  in  Judge- Advocate's  office.  Letter  of  Chief 
Clerk  Wright  to  Holt  contained  in  Holt's  "  Refutation  "  printed  in  the 
Washington  Chronicle  of  December  1,  1873,  and  republished  in  pamphlet. 
Also  Holt's  "  Vindication  "  printed  in  same  newspaper,  August  25,  1873, 
and  republished  in  same  pamphlet.  Also  Andrew  Johnson's  reply  in 
same  newspaper  of  November  12,  1873.  Trial  of  John  H.  Surratt, 
Vol.  2,  p.  1321. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  277 

To  which  he  instantly  replied: 

"Sir:  Your  note  this  day  has  been  received,  stating  that 
public  considerations  of  a  high  character  constrain  you  to 
say  that  my  resignation  as  Secretary  of  War  will  be  ac 
cepted. 

"In  reply,  I  have  the  honor  to  say  that  public  considera 
tions  of  a  high  character,  which  alone  have  induced  me  to 
continue  at  the  head  of  this  department,  constrain  me  not 
to  resign  the  office  of  Secretary  of  War  before  the  next 
meeting  of  Congress. 

"Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War."* 

Is  it  not  a  likely  presumption  that  the  discovery  of  so 
detestable  a  deception  concocted  in  the  Department  of 
War  was  the  ' '  last  straw ' '  banishing  all  hesitation  from 
the  President's  mind  and  driving  him  to  immediate 
action?  It  would  be  a  most  extraordinary  coincidence 
that  two  such  events  should  take  place  on  the  same  day 
without  being  related  to  each  other  to  some  extent  as 
cause  and  effect.  One  serious  objection  there  is,  it  is 
true,  to  the  adoption  of  this  view.  In  communicating 
the  reasons  for  Stanton 's  suspension  to  the  Senate,  the 
following  December,  the  President  failed  to  assign  the 
suppression  of  the  petition,  although  he  did  mention  the 
suppression  of  General  Baird's  telegram  sent  just  before 
the  New  Orleans  riot.  But,  it  should  be  remembered, 
that  the  suppression  of  the  telegram  was  the  act  of  Stan- 
ton,  acknowledged  to  be  so  by  himself,  f  whereas  the  sup- 

*  Given  in  President's  Message  to  Senate  on  suspension.      Trial  of 
Andrew  Johnson,  Vol.  1,  pp.  148,  149.    * 
f  Imp.  Inv.,  p.  398. 


278    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

pression  of  the  petition,  so  far  as  the  proof  goes,  was  the 
act,  not  of  Stanton,  but  of  Holt.  The  record  to  which 
hung  the  incriminatory  paper  was  not  returned  to  the 
Judge- Advocate's  office  until  the  following  December,* 
but,  though  the  President  kept  it  by  him  four  months, 
he  took  no  steps  to  punish  the  offender.  When  he  did 
not  suspend  the  Judge- Advocate  he  could  hardly  assign 
the  Judge- Advocate 's  offence  as  a  reason  for  the  suspen 
sion  of  his  superior  officer.  On  the  whole,  it  is  probable 
that  the  President  omitted  to  mention  the  suppression 
of  the  petition  for  the  same  reason  that  he  did  not  court- 
martial  Holt,  viz :  an  instinctive  revulsion,  natural  to  a 
man  in  his  situati6n,  from  entering  upon  a  personal  con 
troversy  over  so  tender  a  subject  as  the  measure  of  sever 
ity  dealt  out  to  the  convicted  assassins  of  the  martyr  in 
whose  seat  he  was  sitting. 

On  this  eventful  fifth  day  of  August,  another  startling 
revelation  was  made,  touching  the  Judge-Advocate,  if 
not  the  Secretary  of  War,  just  as  close.  John  M.  Binck- 
ley,  acting  Attorney- General  in  the  absence  of  Stanbery, 
laid  his  report  respecting  the  pardon  of  Charles  A.  Dun 
ham,  alias  Sanford  Conover,  before  the  President.  This 
document  consisted  of  a  recital  of  the  contents  of  two 
parcels  left  at  the  executive  office  and  referred  to  the 
Attorney-General.  The  first— left  on  the  twenty-sev 
enth  of  July,  it  is  not  stated  by  whom— was  composed 
of  four,  or  rather  three,  papers :  1.  A  letter  from  A.  G. 
Riddle— one  of  the  counsel  for  the  United  States  in  the 
preparation  of  the  case  against  Surratt— to  the  Presi 
dent,  dated  the  twentieth  of  July,  eulogizing  the  services 

*  Wright's  letter,  ut  supra. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  279 

which  Dunham,  although  in  jail,  had  been  able  to  render 
before  and  during  the  trial  of  Surratt,  in  ' '  giving  much 
valuable  information  both  as  to  the  facts  and  witnesses 
for  the  United  States,"  and,  also,  "the  history  of  and 
facts  concerning  witnesses  called  for  the  defence, "  and 
in  "communicating  important  facts  and  suggestions," 
for  which,  the  writer  states,  l '  the  Government  are  under 
great  obligations  to  him"  and  should  mark  its  apprecia 
tion  of  them  in  a  way  not  to  be  mistaken.  2.  On  a  leaf 
of  the  same  sheet,  a  communication  from  Judge  Holt, 
dated  the  twenty-fourth  but  unaddressed,  in  which,  after 
signifying  his  concurrence  in  i l  the  estimate  of  the  value 
and  importance  of  the  services  of  Charles  A.  Dunham ' ' 
made  by  Mr.  Riddle,  he,  likewise,  recommends  his  par 
don.  3.  A  note  from  Ashley,  dated  July  twenty-second, 
to  Holt  and  Riddle  suggesting  that  a  petition  for  the 
pardon  of  "Mr.  Dunham"— a  draft  of  which  was  to 
have  been  forwarded  with  the  note  but  was  wanting— 
should  be  prepared  and  signed  by  them ;  Ashley  adding : 
"I  think  he  (Dunham)  is  clearly  entitled  to  it,  and  I 
hope  you  will  aid  him  all  you  can. ' '  4.  The  last  paper 
was  a  petition  addressed  to  His  Excellency,  Andrew 
Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States,  dated  July 
twenty-sixth  and  signed  "Chas.  A.  Dunham,"  praying 
for  a  pardon. 

It  appears  from  the  records  of  the  court  that,  at  this 
last-mentioned  date,  Dunham's  final  motion  to  suspend 
sentence  further  was  denied,  and  he  was  taken  at  last 
to  the  Albany  penitentiary.  Abandoning  all  hope  of 
aid  from  his  present  friends,  he  suddenly  resolved  to 
treat  them  to  a  dose  of  their  own  poison.  The  second 


280   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

parcel,  left  on  the  thirtieth  of  July  by  Mrs.  Dunham, 
was  composed  of:  (1)  A  long  letter  from  Dunham 
dated  the  twenty-ninth,  and  addressed  to  the  President, 
in  which  he  denounced  ' i  the  diabolical  designs ' '  of  Ash 
ley  and  the  other  ' t  traitors  and  conspirators ' ' ;  the 
1  i  nefarious  conspiracy  "  of  "  Ashley  and  Co., ' '  by  which, 
in  consideration  of  the  pardon  they  were  to  obtain  for 
him,  he  should  procure  testimony  connecting  Andrew 
Johnson  with  Booth.  His  charges  were  most  explicit. 
Ashley,  he  said,  * l  thought  it  would  be  very  plausible  to 
prove "  four  circumstances,  viz:  1.  That  Booth  paid 
Johnson  several  visits  at  the  Kirkwood  House.  2.  That 
Johnson  corresponded  with  Booth.  3.  That  the  placing 
of  Atzerodt  with  weapons  at  the  Kirkwood  was  a  sham 
to  make  it  appear  that  the  Vice  President  was  intended 
as  a  victim  and  thus  divert  suspicion  of  Johnson's  con 
nivance  at  Lincoln's  murder.  4.  That  Booth  stated 
just  after  the  fourth  of  March  to  intimate  friends  at 
New  York  that  he  was  acting  with  the  knowledge  of  the 
Vice  President ;  that  it  was  arranged  to  kill  Lincoln  on 
the  day  of  the  inauguration,  which  accounted  for  John 
son 's  strange  conduct  on  that  occasion.  Dunham  con 
fessed  without  hesitation  that  he  assured  Ashley  he 
"should  have  no  difficulty  in  finding  persons  of  good 
standing  and  moral  character  to  prove  these  matters, 
and  it  was  agreed  that"  he  "should  do  so  as  soon  as 
released."  "As  an  earnest"  of  what  he  could  do  in 
this  line,  Dunham  tells  that,  at  the  desire  of  Ashley  and 
Butler,  he  forwarded  memoranda  of  the  subject-matter 
of  the  testimony  they  were  in  need  of  to  a  "trusty 
friend ' '  with  ' '  instructions  for  him  to  procure  two  other 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  281 

friends  to  commit  to  memory  the  statements  enclosed  to 
him,  and,  when  sent  for,  to  come  here  (to  Washington) 
and  repeat  them."  And  these  two  persons,  he  stated, 
actually  did  come,  "were  inspected  by  Ashley  and  But 
ler,  and  were  found  to  possess  the  requisite  qualifica 
tions  as  to  intelligence  and  personal  appearance";  were 
"passed"  and  "introduced  to  several  Radical  members 
of  the  House. "  "  Butler  desired  to  have  ta'ken  the  dep 
ositions  of  these  men  at  the  time, ' '  but  Dunham  '  *  would 
not  consent  to  its  being  done"  before  his  release.  Ac 
companying  this  letter  were  (2)  a  specimen  of  the  mem 
oranda  used  to  coach  the  false  witnesses  (which  will  be 
given  hereafter  at  the  date  it  was  produced  before  the 
Impeachment  committee),  (3)  four  notes  of  Ashley  on 
the  business  in  hand,  and  (4)  one  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Match- 
ett.  The  last  note  of  Ashley  bears  date  July  8,  1867, 
and  in  it  he  writes:  "If  you  can  put  the  originals  (i.  e., 
letters  of  A.  J.  to  Davis  and  Booth)  in  my  hands,  I  will 
say  that  no  one  shall  take  or  destroy  them  without  your 
express  order  in  writing  except  you  are  released." 

The  foregoing  report  appeared  in  the  public  press  on 
the  morning  of  the  tenth  of  August;*  on  the  afternoon 
of  which  last-mentioned  day,  it  may  be  stated  in  pass 
ing,  the  jury  in  the  Surratt  case,  after  three  days'  and 
three  nights'  deliberation,  was  discharged  because  of 
inability  to  agree.f 

But  (to  return  from  this  digression)  be  the  undis 
closed  reasons  for  the  suspension  of  Stanton,  if  any 

*  See  Washington  newspapers  of  that  date.     Dunham  was  pardoned, 
in  February,  1860,  by  the  President  on  the  ground  of  ill-health. 
f  Surratt's  Trial,  Vol.  2,  p.  1379. 


282  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

undisclosed  reasons  there  were,  what  they  may,  the  de 
fiant  response  of  the  Secretary  to  the  President 's  request 
for  his  resignation  was  of  itself  a  sufficient  reason  with 
out  seeking  farther.  As  Johnson  states:  "One  thing 
is  certain,  whatever  cogency  in  such  considerations,  .  .  . 
it  was  official  misconduct,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  to  parade 
them  before  his  superior  officer.  .  .  .  Necessarily  it  must 
end  our  most  important  official  relations,  for  I  cannot 
imagine  a  degree  of  effrontery  which  would  embolden 
the  head  of  a  Department  to  take  his  seat  at  the  council 
table  in  the  Executive  Mansion  after  such  an  act.  Nor 
can  I  imagine  a  President  so  forgetful  of  the  proper 
respect  and  dignity  belonging  to  his  office  as  to  submit 
to  such  an  intrusion. "  In  fact,  even  Stanton's  phe 
nomenal  sense  of  official  duty  did  not  go  so  far  as  to 
force  him  to  pose  any  longer  as  one  of  the  constitutional 
advisers  of  the  President.  He  clung  to  his  office  in  the 
War  department,  but  his  chair  at  the  Cabinet-table 
stood  significantly  empty.  For  his  part,  the  President 
delayed  the  complete  ejectment  of  this  self-confessed 
ally  of  his  enemies  only  long  enough  to  determine  upon 
the  modus  operandi  and  to  find  a  successor.  Aware  that, 
according  to  the  construction  put  upon  the  proviso  of 
the  first  section  of  the  Tenure  act  by  its  authors  and  now 
apparently  accepted  by  the  Republican  party  at  large, 
the  summary  removal  of  Stanton  would  be  denounced  as 
an  impeachable  offence,  he  sought  to  avoid  such  an  accu 
sation  by  availing  himself  of  the  power  of  suspension 
granted  to  him  by  the  Tenure  act  with  a  restriction ;  but 
which,  he  believed,  being  included  under  the  power  of 

*  Message  ut  supra. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  283 

removal  vested  in  him  by  the  Constitution,  the  Congress 
had  no  right  to  restrict.  Moreover,  he  was  greatly  em 
barrassed  to  find  a  successor  able  and  willing  to  displace 
the  renowned  War-minister  with  the  Republican  party 
at  his  back;  and  he  seems  to  have  thought  it  indispen 
sable  to  secure  the  cooperation  of  Grant.  In  frequent 
interviews  with  the  General,  he  strove  to  persuade  him 
to  take  the  place,  assuring  him  that  in  any  event  Stanton 
should  remain  no  longer.  Grant  finally  consented,  pro 
vided  the  displacement  took  the  form  of  the  suspension 
of  the  incumbent  and  a  letter  of  authority  to  himself  to 
discharge  the  duties  of  the  office  ad  interim.  An  under 
standing  having  thus  been  effected,  on  the  twelfth  of 
August  the  President  issued  an  order  addressed  to  Ed 
win  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War,  suspending  him  from 
office  "by  virtue  of  the  power  and  authority  invested " 
in  the  President  "by  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the 
United  States";  and  a  letter  addressed  to  Ulysses  S. 
Grant  authorizing  him  to  act  as  Secretary  of  War  ad 
interim.  On  the  same  day,  Grant  notified  Stanton  of 
his  acceptance,  softening  the  blow  by  expressing  his 
' '  appreciation  of  the  zeal,  patriotism,  firmness  and  abil 
ity  ' '  with  which  the  officer  he  superseded  had  ' '  ever  dis 
charged  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  War."  On  receipt 
of  these  two  notes,  Stanton  penned  a  communication  to 
the  President  as  follows: 

"Under  a  sense  of  public  duty  I  am  compelled  to  deny 
your  right,  under  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the  United 
States,  without  the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate,  and 
without  legal  cause,  to  suspend  me  from  office  as  Secretary 
of  War.  .  .  But  inasmuch  as  the  General  commanding  the 


284  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

armies  of  the  United  States  has  been  appointed  ad  interim, 
and  has  notified  me  that  he  has  accepted  the  appointment, 
I  have  no  alternative  but  to  submit  to  superior  force."* 

Stanton  was  out  at  last  but,  although  the  General  of 
the  army  was  in,  he  was  in  only  ad  interim.  The  Ten 
ure  act  provided  in  cases  of  suspension  under  it,  that  if 
the  Senate  refused  to  concur  the  suspended  officer  forth 
with  resumed  the  functions  of  his  office.  Now,  if  there 
was  any  one  thing  on  which  Johnson  was  resolved,  it 
was  that  the  man  whom  he  had  suspended  in  this  case 
should  never  reenter  his  Cabinet  or  recommence  his 
counter-mining  in  the  department  of  War.  To  make 
himself  sure  that  he  held  full  control  of  the  situation, 
a  few  days  after  the  change  was  made  he  stepped  over 
to  the  War-Office  for  an  interchange  of  views  with  the 
new  secretary  concerning  the  course  to  be  pursued  in 
the  too  probable  event  of  the  non-concurrence  of  the 
Senate.  Over  certain  particulars  of  this  interview  the 
President  and  General  Grant  subsequently  fell  out,  but 
upon  the  more  important  features  they  substantially 
agree.  Johnson  first  made  clear  his  determination  to 
prevent  at  all  hazards  the  resumption  of  office  by  Stan- 
ton;  and,  then,  he  inquired  whether  Grant  intended  to 
stand  by  him  in  case  the  Senate  voted  to  restore  his 
enemy.  Would  he  hold  on  to  the  office  and  drive  Stan- 
ton  to  the  courts,  or,  preferring  to  avoid  the  unpleasant 
ness  of  legal  controversy,  resign  in  time  for  the  Presi 
dent  to  fill  the  office  with  a  person  who  would  be  troubled 
with  no  such  reluctance!  Grant  replied,  according  to 

*  See  letters  in  McPh.    Recon.,  p.  261. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  285 

his  own  statement,  that  "in  case  the  Senate  should  not 
concur  in  his  suspension, ' '  Mr.  Stanton,  ' '  to  obtain  pos 
session  of  his  office/'  "would  have  to  appeal  to  the 
courts  to  reinstate  him ' ' ;  adding,  however,  that  this  was 
a  "general  principle,"  and,  if  on  further  examination 
of  the  Tenure-of-office  act,. he  should  "change  his  mind 
in  this  particular  case,  he  would  inform  the  President 
of  the  fact."* 

Owing  to  the  habit  of  strict  military  obedience  to 
which  Grant  was  enured,  the  constitutional  commander- 
in-chief,  for  the  next  three  months,  held  once  more  un 
checked  control  over  the  department  of  War.  One  week 
after  the  new  secretary  seated  himself  in  the  seat  of 
Stanton,  the  President  sent  him  an  order  assigning  Gen 
eral  Thomas  to  the  command  of  the  fifth  military  dis 
trict  in  the  place  of  General  Sheridan,  who  was  trans 
ferred  to  the  department  of  the  Missouri,  and  directing 
him  to  give  the  necessary  instructions  to  carry  the  order 
into  effect.  He  condescended,  however,  so  far  as  to 
send  along  with  the  order  a  note  inviting  any  ' '  sugges 
tions"  the  secretary  might  "deem  necessary  respecting 
these  assignments."  Grant  embraced  the  opportunity 
thus  afforded  him  to  "urge  in  the  name  of  a  patriotic 
people"  that  "the  order  be  not  insisted  on,"  that  "the 
expressed  wish  of  the  country  is  that  General  Sheridan 
should  not  be  removed, ' '  and  i  i  the  will  of  the  people  is 
the  law  of  the  land."  "His  removal  will  only  be  re 
garded  as  an  effort  to  defeat  the  laws  of  Congress." 
"It  will  be  interpreted  by  the  unreconstructed  element 
in  the  South  ...  as  a  triumph.  It  will  embolden  them 

*  See  Grant's  letter,  McPh.    Recon.,  p.  283. 


286  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

to  renewed  opposition  to  the  loyal  masses  believing  that 
they  have  the  Executive  with  them. ' '  General  Thomas, 
too,  had  always  protested  against  being  assigned  to  any 
of  these  military  districts.  This  plain-spoken  remon 
strance  produced  no  effect.  The  secretary  might  have 
the  benefit  of  his  ' '  suggestions"  if  he  only  obeyed  orders. 
There  was  a  delay  of  a  few  days ;  the  ill-health  of  Gen 
eral  Thomas  rendering  necessary  a  modification  of  the 
original  assignment.  But,  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  Au 
gust,  an  order  assigning  General  Winfield  S.  Hancock  to 
the  command  of  the  fifth  district  and  transferring  Gen 
eral  Sheridan  to  the  department  of  the  Missouri  was 
issued  by  the  President  and  promulgated  by  Secretary 
Grant.  On  the  receipt  of  this  order  Sheridan  turned 
over  his  command  to  his  next  in  rank  and  departed.  On 
the  same  day,  a  similar  order  was  issued  relieving  Gen 
eral  Sickles  from  the  command  of  the  second  district 
and  assigning  General  Canby  to  his  place;  the  latter 
officer  assuming  command  on  the  fifth  of  September. 
The  remaining  changes  in  the  military  commanders 
were  not  made  until  the  twenty-eighth  of  December, 
when  Meade  relieved  Pope  in  the  third,  and  McDowell, 
Ord,  in  the  fourth  district.* 

Hancock  was  summoned  to  Washington  on  his  way 
to  his  new  department  and  was  made  a  lion  of  by  the 
administration,  its  supporters  and  the  Democrats. 
When,  on  assuming  command  he  issued  his  first  general 
order  declaring  as  an  unalterable  principle  the  suprem 
acy  of  the  civil  over  the  military  power,  a  shout  went  up 
from  the  conservative  portion  of  the  people  as  though 

*  McPh.    Recon.,  pp.  306-7-8,  345-C. 


EDWIN  M.   STANTON  287 

the  republic  had  been  reborn ;  and  the  glory  of  this  sin 
gle  act  in  civil  affairs  surpassed,  for  a  time,  the  glory 
of  all  his  achievements  in  the  field.* 

*  Order  of  November  29,  1867,  McPh,    Recon.,  p.  324. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE  DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT,  AND  THE 
REINSTATEMENT  OF  STANTON 

THE  elections  in  the  Northern  states  in  the  fall  of  1867 
indicated  that  the  tide  of  popular  opinion  was  running 
strongly  against  the  reconstruction  policy  of  the  domi 
nant  party.  In  September,  Maine  at  the  extreme  east 
reduced  the  Republican  majority  of  28,000  of  the  year 
before  to  1,100;  California  at  the  extreme  west  elected 
(in  the  spring,  however)  a  Democratic  governor  and  two 
out  of  the  three  representatives  in  Congress.  In  Octo 
ber,  Pennsylvania  was  carried  by  the  opposition,  and 
Ohio,  though  the  Republican  candidate  for  governor  was 
successful  by  a  narrow  majority,  elected  a  Democratic 
legislature  which,  the  following  year,  revoked  the  rati 
fication  of  the  fourteenth  amendment  and  elected  a  Dem 
ocrat  to  succeed  Wade.  What  was  still  more  signifi 
cant,  the  voters  rejected  a  proposed  amendment  to  the 
state  constitution  granting  suffrage  to  the  comparatively 
few  negroes  within  her  borders  by  a  constitutional  ma 
jority  of  fifty  thousand.  In  November,  New  York  went 
over  to  the  Democrats  by  a  majority  nearly  as  large. 
New  Jersey  went  the  same  way,  electing  a  legislature 
which  revoked  the  ratification  of  the  fourteenth  amend 
ment  and  sent  back  to  the  Senate  the  ejected  Stockton. 
The  people  of  Kansas  and  Minnesota— sure  Republican 

288 


• 

DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     289 

states— cast  a  verdict  against  negro  suffrage  on  a  direct 
submission  to  them  of  that  issue.  Though  it  was  an 
odd  year  in  politics  and  the  result  could  have  no  effect 
upon  the  composition  of  the  Congress,  in  every  state 
where  elections  were  held,  even  in  Massachusetts,  the 
trend  was  in  the  same  direction.  All  idea  of  selecting 
as  a  candidate  for  President  a  true  expositor  of  the  pol 
icy  of  the  party  was  abandoned,  and  every  eye  was 
turned  to  the  soldier  who,  though  a  member  of  the  ad 
ministration,  bore  the  charmed  title  of  the  Conqueror  of 
the  Rebellion.*  x  On  the  other  hand,  the  President  re 
garded  the  result  as  but  another  justification  of  his 
habitual  confidence  in  the  people,  to  which  he  alluded  in 
a  speech  which  he  read  to  a  crowd  that  gathered  before 
the  White  House  on  the  night  of  the  thirteenth  of  No 
vember  to  congratulate  him  on  the  recent  victories. 
"The  remedy  for  the  present  unhappy  condition  of  the 
country  must  come  from  the  people  themselves, "  he 
said. 

' '  At  the  present  time  they  cannot,  according  to  the  forms 
of  the  Constitution,  repeal  obnoxious  laws;  they  cannot 
remove  or  control  this  military  despotism.  The  remedy 
is  nevertheless  in  their  hands,  and  is  a  sure  one,  if  not  con 
trolled  by  fraud,  overawed  by  arbitrary  power,  or  from 
apathy  on  their  part  too  long  delayed.  With  abiding  con 
fidence  in  their  patriotism,  wisdom  and  integrity,  I  am 
still  hopeful  that  in  the  end  the  rod  of  despotism  will  be 
broken,  the  armed  heel  of  power  lifted  from  the  necks  of 
the  people,  and  the  principles  of  a  violated  Constitution 

preserved."! 

*  For  the  elections,  see  McPh.  Recon.,  pp.  372,  353-4. 
t  Speech,  Imp.  Inv.,  p.  1175. 
19 


290  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

To  the  advocates  of  impeachment  on  the  judiciary 
committee  which  met  two  days  after,  the  speech  was  but 
another  high  misdemeanour,  and  a  printed  copy  was  put 
in  evidence.  "The  echo  of  his  last  speech,"  they  say 
in  their  report,  ' l  is  still  lingering  in  our  ears ' ' ;  and  on 
the  twentieth  the  committee  once  more  came  to  a  vote. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  last  June  they  decided 
against  impeachment  by  a  vote  of  five  to  four.  Not 
withstanding  the  fact  that,  after  the  investigation  was 
reopened  at  the  solicitation  of  the  minority,  no  testimony 
of  any  importance  was  taken  except  General  Grant's 
which  was  not  unfavourable  to  the  President,  the  com 
mittee  now  reversed  its  decision ;  one  of  the  Republicans, 
who  had  voted  in  the  majority  before,  joining  his  radical 
colleagues.  The  convert  was  John  C.  Churchill  from 
Oswego,  New  York,  who  never  publicly  accounted  for 
his  change  of  mind.  The  adjourned  session  of  Con 
gress  opening  the  next  day,  the  committee  was  given 
time  until  the  next  Monday  to  make  a  report ;  and  dur 
ing  the  two  working  days  intervening,  a  fitting  close 
was  put  to  the  investigation  by  the  reexamination  of 
Baker  and  the  examination  of  Ashley.  The  fugitive 
witness  having  returned  of  his  own  accord  was  called 
on  to  disclose  the  whereabouts  of  his  mysterious  Mrs. 
Harris.  He  had  seen  her,  he  swore,  but  he  could  name 
no  person  who  had  seen  her  in  his  company,  or  who  had 
seen  her  enter  the  hotels  where  he  professed  to  have  met 
her,  or  who  had  seen  her  while  there.  He  had  pointed 
her  out  to  Matchett  who  subpoenaed  her  to  come  before 
the  committee,  but  she  would  not  come  without  money, 
he  said.  "How  much  was  wanted?"  inquired  a  mem- 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     291 

ber  of  the  committee.  "  $25,000, "  answered  Baker. 
"Who  made  that  proposition!"  "This  woman  made 
it";  and  with  this  prompt  reply  Baker  was  dismissed.* 
Ashley  was  the  last  witness,  called  seemingly  by  the 
Democratic  members  of  the  committee.  He  admitted 
that  from  the  beginning  of  the  impeachment  movement 
he  entertained  the  belief  that  Andrew  Johnson  was  im 
plicated  in  the  assassination  of  Abraham  Lincoln;  that 
he  had  stated  to  members  of  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  that  he  had  evidence  which  satisfied  him  of  that 
fact ;  that  he  believed  that  letters  were  in  existence  from 
Andrew  Johnson  to  Jefferson  Davis  and  to  Booth  estab 
lishing  that  fact;  that  he  had  been  engaged  ever  since 
the  investigation  began  in  an  effort  to  unearth  these 
letters  and  to  obtain  legal  evidence  to  bring  before  the 
committee ;  that  he  had  employed  Matchett ;  that  he  had 
held  repeated  interviews  with  Conover-Dunham  in  jail 
by  day  and  by  night;  that  after  the  conviction  he  had 
importuned  the  judges  to  stay  the  execution  of  the  sen 
tence  until  an  application  might  be  made  for  pardon; 
that  he  backed  the  convict's  application  to  President 
Johnson  for  a  pardon  so  that  the  convict  might  be  used 
as  a  witness  to  accuse  the  man  who  pardoned  him  of 
complicity  in  the  murder  of  his  predecessor.  The  mem 
orandum  enclosed  by  Dunham  in  his  petition  of  last 
July  and  which  appeared  in  the  report  of  the  acting 
Attorney-General  was  produced  and  put  in  evidence.f 
It  begins : 

*  Imp.  Inv.,  p.  1193. 

t  See  Ch.  Ill,  p.  281,  supra. 


292    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

"Shortly  before  the  inauguration  of  Lincoln  and  John 
son,  the  latter,  through  or  in  connection  with  Booth,  sent 
several  letters  to  the  Confederacy,  one  of  which  was  in 
tended  for  Jefferson  Davis."  These  letters,  it  goes  on, 
were  taken  to  Richmond  by  one  Allen  who  returned  / '  bear 
ing  several  letters  from  J.  P.  Benjamin"  "enclosed  to 
Booth."  Allen  delivered  the  package  to  Booth  who  taking 
one  letter  out  "addressed  to  'Andrew  Johnson,  Vice-Presi- 
dent  elect  of  the  United  States'  "  asked  Allen  to  deliver  it 
which  he  did  in  company  with  a  friend  whom  Allen  took 
along ;  both  Allen  and  friend  can  be  produced.  There  were 
two  ex-rebel  soldiers,  one  named  Dawson,  who  would  testify 
that  they  met  Booth  the  second  day  before  his  death  "near 
Garrett's"  and  he  told  them  he  had  "killed  Lincoln  and 
thereby  made  a  good  southern  man  President."  Dawson 
replied  that  on  the  contrary  "if  he  meant  that  he  had  made 
Andy  Johnson  President,  he  had  done  the  worse  possible 
thing  for  the  South,  as  he  was  more  extreme  in  his  views  and 
a  greater  enemy  to  the  South  than  Lincoln."  "Booth 
replied  that  it  was  a  mistake;  that  Johnson  as  a  candidate 
and  office-seeker  had  to  say  a  great  many  things,  but  that 
as  President  he  could  do  as  he  pleased ;  that  he  was  bound 
to  be  a  friend  of  the  South;  and  that  if  he  went  back  on 
him  (Booth)  he  would  have  him  hung  higher  than  Haman." 

Ashley  explained  what  he  called  his  "  theory  about 
this  matter ' ' : 

"I  have  always  believed  that  President  Harrison  and 
President  Taylor  and  President  Buchanan  were  poisoned, 
and  were  poisoned  for  the  express  purpose  of  putting  the 
Vice  Presidents  in  the  presidential  office.  In  the  first  two 
instances  it  was  successful.  It  was  attempted  with  Mr. 
Buchanan  and  failed.  It  succeeded  with  Mr.  Tavlor  and 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     293 

Mr.  Harrison.  Then  Mr.  Lincoln  was  assassinated,  and 
from  my  stand-point  I  could  come  to  a  conclusion  which 
impartial  men,  holding  different  views,  could  not  come. 
It  would  not  amount  to  legal  evidence. 

"Q.  Do  you  mean  to  say  that  you  formed  an  opinion  and 
expressed  it  to  members  of  Congress  that  there  was  evidence 
to  implicate  Mr.  Johnson  which  was  not  legal  evidence? 

"A.  Yes,  sir;  it  satisfied  me. 

"Q.  State  to  the  committee  any  evidence  or  fact  that 
you  know,  tending  in  any  degree  to  fasten  the  assassination 
on  Mr.  Johnson. 

"A.I  never  withheld  anything  from  the  committee  which 
I  regarded  as  evidence. 

"Q.  Then  you  state  now,  as  you  did  before,  that  you 
know  of  no  other  evidence  tending  to  show  that  fact? 

"A.  I  know  none  at  present  which  I  could  bring  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  committee,  or  I  should  bring  it."* 

On  Monday,  the  voluminous  farrago  of  testimony  the 
committee  had  raked  together  was  laid  before  the  House 
accompanied  by  three  reports.  There  was  a  majority 
report  recommending  the  passage  of  a  resolution  that 
Andrew  Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States,  be 
impeached  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanours.  There 
was  a  report  of  the  two  Republicans  in  the  minority 
recommending  the  passage  of  a  resolution  that  the  com 
mittee  be  discharged  from  the  further  consideration  of 
the  impeachment  and  that  the  subject  be  laid  upon  the 
table.  There  was  a  report  of  the  Democratic  members 
concurring  with  their  associates  of  the  minority  respect 
ing  the  law  and  the  facts  but  dissenting  from  the  censure 
of  the  political  conduct  of  the  President  which  the  Ee- 

*  Imp.  Inv.,  pp.  1204,  1194  et  seq.;  1198-9. 


294    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

publican  minority  saw  fit  to  pronounce.*  As  to  the 
thoroughness  of  the  investigation  there  was  no  dispute. 
The  majority  report  says:  the  committee  "have  spared 
no  pains  to  make  their  investigations  as  complete  as 
possible,  not  only  in  the  exploration  of  the  public  ar 
chives,  but  in  following  every  indication  that  seemed  to 
promise  any  additional  light  upon  the  great  subjects  of 
inquiry. ' '  The  report  of  the  Democrats  in  the  minority 
declares : 

"A  drag-net  has  been  put  out  to  catch  every  malicious 
whisper  throughout  the  land,  and  all  the  vile  vermin  who 
had  gossip  or  slander  to  detail,  hearsay  or  otherwise,  have 
been  permitted  to  appear  and  place  it  upon  record  for  the 
delectation  of  mankind.  Spies  have  been  sent  all  over  the 
land  to  find  something  that  might  blacken  the  name  and 
character  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  our  country.  Un- 
whippecl  knaves  have  given  information  of  fabulous  letters 
and  documents.  .  .  .  That  most  notorious  character,  Gen 
eral  L.  C.  Baker,  chief  of  the  detective  police,  even  had  the 
effrontery  to  insult  the  American  people  by  placing  spies 
within  the  very  walls  of  the  Executive  Mansion;  the 
privacy  of  the  President's  home,  his  private  life  and  habits 
and  most  secret  thoughts  have  not  been  deemed  sacred  or 
exempt  from  invasion ;  the  members  of  his  household  have 
been  examined ;  and  the  chief  prosecutor  has  not  hesitated 
to  dive  into  loathsome  dungeons  and  consort  with  con 
victed  felons,  for  the  purpose  of  accomplishing  his  object 
of  arraigning  the  President  on  a  charge  of  infamous 
crimes." 

There  were  ninety-nine  witnesses  sworn  on  a  variety 
of  topics.     But,  as  the  report  of  the  two  Republicans  in 

*  The  reports  are  prefixed  to  the  testimony  in  Imp.  Inv. 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     295 

the  minority  states :  '  *  a  great  deal  of  the  matter  ...  is 
of  no  value  whatever.  Much  of  it  is  mere  hearsay,  opin 
ions  of  witnesses,  and  no  little  amount  of  it  is  utterly 
irrelevant  to  the  case.  Comparatively  a  small  amount 
of  it  could  be  used  on  a  trial  of  this  case  before  the  Sen 
ate." 

On  the  law  of  the  case  there  was  a  wide  difference  of 
opinion  between  the  Republicans  in  the  majority  and  the 
Republicans  in  the  minority.  The  leading  proposition 
of  law  upheld  by  the  majority  was  that,  under  the  sec 
tion  of  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  providing 
that  "the  President  .  .  .  shall  be  removed  from  office 
on  impeachment  for,  and  conviction  of,  treason,  bribery 
and  other  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors,"  a  course  of 
maladministration  * '  involving  usurpation  of  power  and 
repeated  violations  of  law"  was  impeachable  although 
no  offence_  indictable  under  the  statutes  of  the  United 
States  was  committed.  The  leading  proposition  of  law 
maintained  by  the  Republicans  in  the  minority  was  that 
no  offence,  except  the  two  specified  in  the  Constitution 
itself,  was  impeachable  unless  at  the  same  time  indicta 
ble  as  a  crime  or  misdemeanour,  not  merely  at  common 
law  but  under  some  existing  statute  of  the  United 
States.  This  latter  proposition,  after  the  flood  of  light 
thrown  upon  the  subject  on  the  trial  of  the  President, 
will  now  be  considered  as  altogether  too  narrow.  At 
the  time  the  words  in  question  were  used,  the  United 
States  statute-maker  not  having  yet  come  into  being, 
there  was  no  United  States  statute  against  treason  or 
bribery  and  none,  of  course,  defining  any  other  crime 
or  misdemeanour.  Nevertheless,  the  framers  of  the 


296    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Constitution  presupposed  treason  to  be  a  high  crime, 
and  bribery,  if  not  originally  a  high  crime,  a  high  mis 
demeanour  ;  and  they  did  so  because  of  their  familiarity 
with  the  common  law  and  the  statutes  of  the  several 
states.  So,  also,  when  they  used  the  phrase  "high 
crimes  and  misdemeanors'7  it  was  not  with  any  pro 
phetic  vision  of  what  might  be  made  high  crimes  and 
misdemeanours  by  some  federal  statute  to  come,  but  with 
the  knowledge  of  what  at  that  very  moment  were  high 
crimes  and  misdemeanours  by  reason  of  the  common  law 
and  the  statutes  of  the  several  states.  Besides,  this 
position  of  the  minority  leads  necessarily  to  a  most 
dangerous  conclusion.  Mr.  Boutwell,  in  the  speech  he 
made  in  defence  of  the  majority  report,  pointed  this  out 
in  words  memorable  for  what  was  to  come : 

"Assume  that  it  is  not  possible  to  impeach  the  President 
or  any  civil  officer  for  any  offense  of  which  he  may  be  guilty, 
unless  such  offense  shall  have  been  declared  previously 
by  a  law  of  the  United  States  to  be  an  indictable  high 
crime  or  misdemeanor.  But  will  it  be  assumed  further  on 
the  one  hand  that  Congress  may  by  law  declare  an  act  to 
be  a  misdemeanor  which,  according  to  the  principles  of  the 
common  law,  contains  no  one  element  or  quality  of  a  crime, 
and  upon  the  doing  of  the  thing  inhibited  proceed  to  im 
peach  and  remove  the  President  of  the  United  States  from 
his  office?"* 

But,  while  the  legal  proposition  of  the  minority  is  too 
narrow,  the  legal  proposition  of  the  majority,  emascu 
lating,  as  it  does,  the  words  "high  crimes  and  misde- 

*  Appendix  to  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  57. 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     297 

meanors ' '  of  all  precise  and  definitive  meaning,  making 
offences  impeachable  that  are  not  indictable  at  all, 
either  by  common  law  or  statute,  is  a  world  too  wide. 
The  same  line  of  argument  they  followed  to  refute  the 
extreme  conclusion  of  their  opponents  applies  with  equal 
force  to  their  own.  The  history  of  the  words  in  the 
•convention  that  framed  the  Constitution,  as  narrated  by 
Madison,  seems  decisive  of  the  controversy.  The  orig 
inal  proposition  submitted  was  to  make  the  President 
removable  on  impeachment  and  conviction  "for  mal  or 
corrupt  conduct,"  or  "for  malpractice  or  neglect  of 
duty."  Afterwards,  the  clause  was  modified  so  as  to 
read  "for  treason,  bribery,  or  corruption,"  and  finally 
confined  to  "treason  and  bribery"  alone.  When,  after 
being  so  amended,  it  was  taken  up  once  more  for  con 
sideration,  Colonel  Mason  moved  to  add  "mal-adminis- 
tration. "  Madison  objecting  that  so  vague  a  term 
would  be  equivalent  to  a  tenure  during  the  pleasure  of 
the  Senate,  Mason  withdrew  the  word  and  substituted 
"other  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  against  the 
state, ' '  which  was  agreed  to,  and  on  the  general  revision 
the  last  three  words  were  deleted  as  superfluous.*  So 
that,  if  any  construction  of  a  constitutional  provision  by 
resorting  to  its  origin  and  gestation  was  ever  valid,  the 
phrase  "other  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors"  used  in 
the  Constitution  must  be  held  to  mean  only  such  mal 
feasance  in  office  as  constituted  at  common  law  a  high 
crime  or  a  high  misdemeanour  of  a  kindred  grade,  re 
spectively,  with  treason  or  bribery. 

*  See   Supplement  to   Elliot's   Debates    (1876,   Lippincott),   pp.   340, 
507,  528.    Cf.  Groesbeck's  argument,  Trial,  Vol.  2,  p.  190. 


298    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Enough,  at  present,  on  the  question  of  law.  Coming 
to  the  facts,  "the  great  salient  point  of  accusation/' 
according  to  the  majority  report  (written  by  Williams) 
was  " usurpation  of  power"  with  "the  one  great  over 
shadowing  purpose  of  reconstructing  the  shattered  gov 
ernments  of  the  rebel  states  in  accordance  with  his  (the 
President's)  own  will,  in  the  interests  of  the  great  crim 
inals  who  carried  them  into  rebellion,  ...  by  pardon 
ing  their  offences,  restoring  their  lands  and  hurrying 
them  back— their  hearts  unrepentant,  and  their  hands 
yet  red  with  the  blood  of  our  people — into  a  condition 
where  they  could  once  more  embarrass  and  defy,  if  not 
absolutely  rule  the  Government  which  they  had  vainly 
endeavored  to  destroy.  It  is  around  this  point  and  as 
auxiliary  to  this  central  idea  that  all  the  special  acts  of 
mal-administration  .  .  .  will  be  found  to  gravitate." 
Then  follow  the  specifications :  First,  the  President  sur 
rendered  to  the  rebels  the  ' '  system  of  railroads  "  "  with 
their  costly  apparatus, ' '  existing  in  their  states,  and  re 
stored  to  the  rebels  large  amounts  of  captured  and  aban 
doned  property;  in  violation  of  the  confiscation  acts. 
Second,  the  President  abused  the  pardoning  power ;  in 
stancing  (1)  telegrams  of  the  President  and  Secretary 
of  State  promising  pardons  to  delegates  of  the  constitu 
tional  conventions,  held  in  obedience  to  the  President's 
proclamation,  so  as  to  qualify  them  to  sit,  and  (2)  the 
case  of  the  West  Virginia  deserters,  reference  to  which 
has  already  been  made.*  Third,  the  failure  of  the  Pres 
ident  to  execute  the  laws  by  bringing  the  rebels  to  pun 
ishment.  "In  regard  to  the  case  of  the  leader  of  the 

*  Supra,  Chap.  II,  p.  222. 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     299 

rebellion  himself  the  Committee  are  not  agreed  upon  the 
propriety  or  necessity  of  indulging  in  any  special  com 
mentary.  ' '  But  the  pardon  of  Clement  C.  Clay,  charged 
equally  with  Davis  with  the  crime  of  complicity  in 
the  assassination,  is  mentioned  with  disapprobation. 
Fourth,  the  President  abused  the  appointing  power  and 
with  it  the  power  of  removal  from  office.  How  such  an 
"abuse"  which,  the  report  admits,  had  been  practiced 
"for  the  last  thirty  years  of  our  history"  could  on  a 
sudden  become  an  impeachable  misdemeanour,  it  is  at 
tempted  to  explain  by  the  circumstance,  that  the  * '  pres 
ent  incumbent  without  a  party  to  represent  his  opinions, 
except  it  may  be  in  the  rebel  States,  .  .  .  has  felt  no 
hesitation  in  declaring  in  a  public  speech :  '  If  you  will 
stand  by  me  I  will  kick  them  (the  friends  of  the  Con 
gress  in  office)  out  as  fast  as  I  can, ' ' '  and  has  been  doing 
it  ever  since.  He  also  has  refused  to  send  nominations 
to  the  Senate  for  vacancies  filled  during  recess,  and  has 
reappointed  persons  rejected  by  the  Senate,  on  its  ad 
journment.  And  he  violated  an  act  of  Congress  in 
permitting  his  provisional  governors  and  revenue  officers 
in  the  South  to  discharge  their  duties  without  taking  the 
test  oath.  Fifth,  the  President  abused  the  veto  power. 
The  exercise  of  a  power  expressly  granted  the  President 
is  transmuted  into  a  high  crime  or  misdemeanour  by 
the  allegation:  "This  power  has  been  systematically 
employed  to  defeat  the  will  of  the  people,  and  accom 
plish  the  criminal  designs  of  the  Executive."  The 
negotiations  with  the  Colorado  senators-elect  are  cited 
as  evidence.*  Sixth,  the  President  corruptly  interfered 

*  Supra,  p.  91. 


300    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

in  elections.  Under  this  head  are  specified  the  efforts 
of  office-holders  at  the  Philadelphia  convention  and  else 
where,  to  uphold  the  policy  of  the  President  and  * '  defeat 
the  will  of  Congress ";  the  speeches  of  the  President 
from  that  of  the  twenty-second  of  February,  1866,  down 
to  the  speech  of  the  thirteenth  of  November  just  past; 
his  dissuasions  of  the  Southern  people  from  adopting 
the  fourteenth  amendment;  and  the  riots  at  Memphis 
and  New  Orleans  for  which,  without  a  single  circum 
stance  of  proof,  it  is  alleged  the  President  is  responsible. 
In  reviewing  the  facts  as  marshalled  in  the  report,  it 
is  only  necessary  to  remark  that  the  main  offence  charged 
and  all  the  subsidiary  offences  on  which  the  greatest 
stress  was  laid— restoration  of  property,  wholesale  par 
dons,  dispensations  with  the  test  oath— were  committed 
before  the  meeting  of  the  thirty-ninth  Congress  in  De 
cember,  1865,  and  a  year  before  the  impeachment  move 
ment  was  begun,  nay,  before  there  was  any  open  breach 
between  the  President  and  the  Congress.  Very  little 
stress  was  laid  on  the  speeches  made  during  the  famous 
tour,  though  these  were  the  actual  exciting  cause  of  the 
present  prosecution.  And  not  a  word  was  said  of  any 
failure  to  execute  the  Freedmen's  Bureau  or  Civil  Rights 
acts,  and  not  a  specific  accusation  made  that  in  any  one 
instance  the  reconstruction  acts  were  not  carried  out. 
The  President  was  to  be  punished,  not  for  what  he  had 
done  in  the  midst  of  the  fight,  but  for  what  he  had  done 
before  the  fight  began.  There  was  even  an  aspect  of 
the  case  in  which  the  entire  movement  became  ludicrous 
—an  aspect  to  which  the  Democratic  minority  on  the 
committee  called  attention.  "The  President  is  gravely 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     301 

arraigned,"  they  said,  "for  arraying  himself  against 
the  loyal  people  of  the  country"  by  pursuing  a  recon 
struction  policy  which  Congress  antagonizes,  "when 
Congress  itself  for  pursuing  a  reconstructing  policy 
which  the  President  antagonizes  has  just  received  the 
most  withering  and  indignant  condemnation  and  rebuke 
of  the  entire  people  from  Maine  to  California."  In 
deed,  one  of  the  "particular  offences"  which  haunted 
the  mind  of  Mr.  Boutwell  was  committed  before  Johnson 
was  even  Vice  President.  As  he  described  it :  "  Jefferson 
Davis  was  still  at  Richmond.  The  armies  of  Lee  men 
aced  the  capital  of  his  country.  Andrew  Johnson  was 
approaching  that  capital  for  the  purpose  of  taking  the 
oath  of  office.  That  capital  was  merely  a  fortified  gar 
rison.  He  then  declares  that  the  country  cannot  be 
saved  except  by  the  old  Democratic  party."  "That 
casual  expression  discloses  his  mysterious  course  from 
that  day  to  this."  Even  before  he  was  President  and 
when  he  had  no  reason  to  believe  he  would  ever  be  Presi 
dent  unless  he  had  already  foreseen  the  assassination  of 
his  predecessor,  he  had  conceived  the  deep-laid  scheme 
of  turning  the  country  over  to  the  rebels  and  "the  old 
Democratic  party"!*  Mr.  Boutwell  never  forgot  it. 
Nearly  twenty  years  after  he  quotes  it  as  the  key  to  the 
whole  of  Johnson's  subsequent  career.f  Wilson,  in  his 
reply  to  Mr.  Boutwell,  reduced  the  incident  to  its  true 
proportions  when  he  said,  that,  so  far  from  the  remark 
being  a  crime  in  Johnson,  it  showed  that ' '  we  committed 

*  App.  Globe,  ut  supra,  p.  GO. 

f  North  Amer.  Rev.,  December,  1885. 


302    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

a  terrible  blunder  .  .  .  when  we  selected  Andrew  John 
son  as  our  candidate  for  the  Vice  Presidential  office." 

No  confutation  could  be  more  complete  than  was 
wrought  by  the  report  of  the  Republicans  in  the  minor 
ity  (written  by  James  F.  Wilson)  of  the  charges  pre 
sented  by  the  majority.  Concerning  the  animus  dis 
played  by  the  latter  it  states : 

"The  report  of  the  majority  resolves  all  presumptions 
against  the  President,  closes  the  door  against  all  doubts, 
affirms  facts  as  established  by  the  testimony  in  support  of 
which  there  is  not  a  particle  of  evidence  before  us  which 
would  be  received  by  any  court  in  the  land.  We  dissent 
from  all  this,  and  from  the  temper  and  spirit  of  the  report." 

Again : 

"All  the  testimony  relating  to  the  failure  to  try,  and 
admission  to  bail  of,  Jefferson  Davis,  the  assassination  of 
President  Lincoln,  the  diary  of  J.  AYilkes  Booth,  his  place 
of  burial,  the  practice  of  pardon  brokerage,  the  alleged 
correspondence  of  the  President  with  Jefferson  Davis,  may 
be  interesting  to  a  reader,  but  is  not  of  the  slightest  im 
portance  so  far  as  a  determination  of  this  case  is  concerned. 
Still,  much  of  this  irrelevant  matter  has  been  interwoven 
into  the  report  of  the  majority,  and  has  served  to  heighten 
its  color  and  deepen  its  tone." 

Coming  to  the  central  charge,  Wilson  sweeps  it  away 
by  as  complete  a  reductio  ad  absurdum  as  was  ever 
achieved.  By  simply  incorporating  in  his  report  copi 
ous  citations  from  the  testimony  of  Stanton,  Seward,  and 
Grant,  he  demonstrates  that  in  the  inception  of  the  recon- 

*  Wilson's  Speech,  <7/o?>c,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  App.  p.  04. 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     303 

struction  policy  of  the  administration,  in  the  putting  it 
in  operation  without  calling  together  the  Congress,  the 
executive  department  acted  as  a  unit;  that  in  the  so- 
called  usurpation,  every  member  of  the  Cabinet  as  well  as 
the  general  of  the  army  was  a  voluntary  participant,  and, 
if  the  President  was  guilty  of  a  high  crime  or  misdemean 
our  in  this  matter,  they  were  all  as  guilty  as  he.  This 
strong  point,  Mr.  Boutwell,  to  whose  imagination  An 
drew  Johnson  was  a  monster  of  depravity,  endeavoured 
to  meet  in  his  speech  in  the  House,  by  describing  John 
son  as  also  a  monster  in  ability ;  pleading  that  his  Cabi 
net  officers  "in  the  beginning  did  not  understand  the 
President 's  character,  capacity  and  purposes ' ' ;  further, 
that  the  President's  "capacity  has  not  been  compre 
hended  by  the  country.  Violent  sometimes  in  language, 
indiscreet  in  manner,  impulsive  in  action,  unwise  often 
in  declamation,  he  is  still  animated  by  a  persistency  of 
purpose  which  never  yields  under  any  circumstances, 
but  seeks  by  means  covert  and  tortuous  as  well  as  open 
and  direct  the  accomplishment  of  the  purpose  of  his 
life."  But  this  plea,  Wilson  had  already  anticipated 
by  as  complete  an  estoppel.  He  cites  the  report  of  the 
joint  committee  on  reconstruction,  of  which  Mr.  Boutwell 
was  himself  a  member,  made  long  after  the  rupture 
between  the  President  and  the  Congress  and  when  the 
high  crime  of  "usurpation"  had  been  consummated, 
where  the  twelve  Republican  members  do  not  "fail  to 
consider  the  peculiar  circumstances  under  which  he 
acted,"  and,  speaking  of  the  authority  of  the  people  to 
frame  a  form  of  government,  say:  "Ordinarily  this 

*  Globe,  App.,  p.  GO. 


304    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

authority  emanates  from  Congress ;  but,  under  the  pecu 
liar  circumstances,  your  Committee  is  not  disposed  to 
criticise  the  President's  action  in  assuming  the  power 
exercised  by  him  in  this  regard."  "While  we  do  not 
for  a  moment  impute  to  the  President  any  such  design" 
(i.  e.,  the  very  same  design  the  majority  report  endeav 
ours  to  fasten  on  him),  "but  cheerfully  concede  to  him 
the  most  patriotic  motives,  we  cannot  but  look  with 
alarm  upon  a  precedent  so  fraught  with  danger  to  the 
Kepublic. ' '  He  then  shows  that,  as  a  remedy,  impeach 
ment  was  not  even  thought  of;  but  that  the  plan  of  the 
joint  committee  presupposed  the  validity  of  the  states 
reconstructed  under  the  policy  now  pronounced  a  usur 
pation,  and  ' '  proposed  to  use  the  identical  governments 
organized  ...  in  pursuance  of  the  President's  policy, 
as  a  means  to  insure  its  own  success. ' ?  Moreover,  Con 
gress,  down  to  the  present  moment,  has  not  set  aside 
these  governments,  but  the  "affairs  of  those  States  are 
now  administered  through  the  machinery  of  the  provi 
sional  governments,  under  the  supervision  of  the  mili 
tary"  by  the  sufferance  of  Congress.  In  short,  even 
now  the  impeaching  body  is  in  some  sort  an  accomplice 
of  the  President  in  his  "colossal  usurpation." 

The  central  charge  being  annihilated,  the  subsidiary 
charges  necessarily  fell  with  it.  '  *  If  the  greater  be  not 
a  crime,"  as  the  report  states,  "the  less  cannot  rise  to 
that  importance."  But  the  industrious  chairman,  nev 
ertheless,  took  the  pains  to  go  over  them  and  one  by  one 
give  them  their  quietus.  The  first— restoration  of  prop 
erty  to  the  rebels— was  disposed  of  on  these  grounds: 
1.  If  there  was  any  crime  about  the  matter,  the  Secre- 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     305 

tary  of  War  and  the  Quartermaster-General  who,  accord 
ing  to  the  testimony  of  Stanton  himself,  were  the  princi 
pal  actors,  were  the  criminals  and  not  the  President  who, 
as  far  as  appears,  "did  not  give  his  personal  attention 
to  the  subject  to  any  considerable  extent,  except  as  re 
lates  to  the  railroads  of  Tennessee. "  2.  According  to 
the  opinion  of  Attorney-General  Speed,  a  corporation 
cannot  be  guilty  of  treason  and  its  property  is  not, 
therefore,  subject  to  the  confiscation  acts.  3.  The  con 
fiscation  acts  were  war  measures,  and  both  Attorney- 
Generals  Speed  and  Stanbery  advised  the  President  that 
the  war  being  over  it  was  not  proper  to  continue  them 
in  force.  4.  The  Amnesty  Proclamation  carried  with 
it  a  restoration  of  property  to  the  pardoned  offender; 
and  this  proclamation  was  issued  in  pursuance  of  an  act 
of  Congress.  The  second  charge,  viz :  the  abuse  of  the 
pardoning  power,  being  very  feebly  sustained,  is  easily 
overthrown.  ' i  That  the  President  has  used  the  pardon 
ing  power  in  a  vast  number  of  cases  is  a  fact  of  public 
notoriety.  But  this  fact  proves  but  one  thing,  namely, 
that  a  great  many  persons  in  the  United  States  had  com 
mitted  crimes. ' '  The  case  of  the  West  Virginia  soldiers 
is  detailed  at  length;  it  appearing  that  their  desertion 
amounted  to  this— having  got  lost  in  the  mountains  they 
were  absent  from  roll-call,  but  returned  to  their  regi 
ments  as  soon  as  it  was  possible,  and  served  thereafter 
throughout  the  war.  In  order  to  show  how  a  bulky 
charge  may  shrivel  up  into  nothing  beneath  the  breath 
of  investigation,  it  may  not  be  considered  a  digression 
to  dwell  for  a  moment  on  the  pardon  of  one  George  W. 
Gayle.  In  December,  1864,  there  appeared  in  the  Selma 
20 


306    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Despatch,  a  newspaper  published  in  Alabama,  an  anony 
mous  advertisement  headed :  "A  million  dollars  wanted 
to  have  peace  by  the  first  of  March " ;  in  which  it  was 
offered  for  a  million  dollars  furnished  by  the  Southern 
Confederacy  "to  cause  the  lives  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
William  H.  Seward  and  Andrew  Johnson  to  be  taken " 
by  that  day;  $50,000  to  be  paid  in  advance,  $1,000 
whereof  the  advertiser  promised  to  contribute.  Before 
the  assassination  of  President  Lincoln,  no  attention  was 
paid  to  this  ridiculous  card,  but  on  the  happening  of 
that  tragic  event  it  suddenly  assumed  a  terrible  signifi 
cance.  The  bloody  offer  figured  largely  before  the  mili 
tary  commission  that  tried  the  accused  assassins  as  one 
of  the  connecting  links  between  Booth  and  the  leaders 
of  the  South.  It  being  speedily  discovered  that  Gayle 
was  the  guilty  author,  he  was  put  under  arrest  and  in 
dicted  for  conspiracy.  When  the  impeachment  investi 
gators  lit  upon  the  fact  that  this  "miscreant"  had  been 
pardoned  by  one  of  the  men  he  had  proposed  to  assas 
sinate,  hands  were  raised  in  speechless  horror  and  the 
crazy  suspicion  that  Andrew  Johnson  might  have  con 
nived  at  his  own  assassination  flamed  up  afresh.  The 
cold  facts,  however,  put  a  rude  extinguisher  upon  these 
lurid  imaginings.  In  September,  1866,  Gayle  petitioned 
for  his  pardon;  the  only  reason  why  he  was  excluded 
from  the  general  amnesty  being  that  he  was  in  military 
custody  at  the  time  that  the  proclamation  was  issued. 
It  appeared  that  he  was  by  profession  a  lawyer,  that  he 
was  old  and  feeble,  with  a  wife  and  three  daughters  de 
pendent  on  him  for  support;  that  he  had  sympathized 
with  and  aided  the  rebellion  but  not  in  the  field ;  that  he 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     307 

was  a  harmless  and  inoffensive  man  utterly  incapable  of 
doing  a  personal  injury  to  anybody,  and  at  the  time  of 
the  advertisement  he  could  not  possibly  have  raised  one 
hundred  dollars  for  the  purpose  indicated  or  for  any 
other ;  that  the  advertisement  was  a  i  i  mere  canard, ' '  in 
serted  for  amusement,  and  Gayle  was  under  the  influ 
ence  of  liquor  when  he  wrote  it.  His  pardon  was  recom 
mended  by  the  officers  and  soldiers,  late  of  the  federal 
army,  stationed  in  Dallas  county,  Alabama ;  by  the  Hart- 
will  Chapter  of  Free  Masons  at  Cahaba,  Alabama;  by 
the  governor  and  every  member  of  the  Senate  and  House 
of  Representatives  of  the  state;  and  by  the  judges  and 
principal  members  of  the  bar  of  Alabama ;  was  approved 
by  Stanbery  on  these  papers,  and  granted  by  the  Presi 
dent  on  the  twenty-seventh  day  of  April,  1867.  So  com 
plete  was  the  justification,  that  the  pardon  is  not  even 
alluded  to  in  the  majority  report;  yet  this  foolish  piece 
of  drunken  bravado  is  still,  sometimes,  gravely  cited 
even  at  this  day  as  a  portentous  proof  of  the  wide  extent 
of  the  assassination  plot.* 

The  third  charge— the  non-execution  of  the  laws  for 
the  punishment  of  rebels— the  minority  report  does  not 
deign  to  notice.  The  fourth— appointments  and  remov 
als  for  political  reasons — is  answered  by  an  appeal  to 
the  practice  of  former  administrations.  "Did  not  the 
Republican  party  continue  the  practice!  and  is  it  now 
first  discovered  to  be  a  crime!"  As  to  the  neglect  to 
send  in  nominations  to  the  Senate,  the  minority  say: 
' '  the  evidence  does  not  support  the  charge. "  As  to  the 

*  Imp.  Inv.,  pp.  564  et  seq.  "  The  Assassination  of  Lincoln,"  by 
Gen.  T.  M.  Harris,  a  member  of  the  commission,  pp.  149,  150. 


308    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

appointment  of  persons  in  the  South  who  could  not  take 
the  test  oath,  the  testimony  of  the  Secretary  of  the  Treas 
ury  shows  that  none  was  appointed  who  had  instigated 
or  been  active  in  the  rebellion,  or  who  could  be  consid 
ered  in  any  way  responsible  for,  or  favourable  to,  it. 
Failing  to  find  competent  persons  who  could  take  the 
oath  literally,  the  administration  availed  itself  of  those 
persons  who  had  been  substantially  loyal;  trusting  to 
Congress  for  indemnification.  Fifth— as  to  the  charge 
of  abusing  the  veto  power,  the  chairman  contents  him 
self  with  a  review  of  the  Colorado  case,  pointing  out  that 
that  veto  had  not  yet  been  overridden,  and  in  that  sense 
may  be  considered  approved  by  the  Congress  itself. 
Whether  the  President  offered  to  approve  the  bill  if  the 
senators-elect  would  promise  to  support  his  administra 
tion  or  not  is  immaterial,  as  the  bargain,  even  if  it  could 
be  called  corrupt,  was  not  made.  The  sixth  and  last 
charge,  viz :  interference  in  elections,  he  remarks,  is  com 
prehended  under  some  one  or  more  of  the  foregoing  and 
needs  no  further  notice.  The  Republican  minority  only 
broke  the  force  of  their  conclusion  by  swerving  aside  to 
aver  that,  while  ' '  the  case  fails  upon  the  law  and  the  tes 
timony,  from  a  political  stand-point  it  is  a  success ' '  and 
to  subjoin  a  censure  upon  the  President  for  "betraying 
the  confidence"  of  "those  who  placed  him  in  power" 
and  joining  "hands  with  their  enemies." 

The  discussion  of  the  several  reports  having  been  post 
poned  until  the  third  day  of  the  regular  session,  the  two 
Houses  had  nothing  important  to  do;  but,  still,  they 
would  not  adjourn  without  day  for  fear  of  a  "recess"— 
a  term  which  was  understood  to  signify  the  interval 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     309 

between  the  end  of  one  regular  session  and  the  begin 
ning  of  another,  during  which  the  President  might  fill 
vacancies  with  persons  whose  commissions  need  not  ex 
pire  until  the  end  of  the  next  session ;  and,  accordingly, 
they  adjourned  to  the  day  and  hour  the  regular  session 
commenced— Monday,  the  second  day  of  December,  at 
twelve,  noon.  The  annual  message  of  the  President 
plainly  showed  that  the  pending  impeachment  had  no 
terrors  for  him.  No  former  one  breathed  so  glowing  an 
ardour  for  battle  and  so  fixed  a  determination  to  per 
severe  in  the  contest.  In  tone  and  manner  dignified  and 
respectful,  in  argument  it  took  the  exasperating  form  of 
an  exhortation  to  the  Congress,  in  view  of  the  disastrous 
effects  of  its  course  hitherto,  to  hasten  to  retrace  its 
steps.  "  It  is  a  source  of  profound  regret, ' '  the  President 
remarks,  "that  in  complying  with  the  obligation  im 
posed  upon  him  by  the  Constitution  '  to  give  to  Congress 
from  time  to  time  information  of  the  state  of  the 
Union, ' ' '  he  1 1  is  unable  to  communicate  any  definite 
adjustment,  satisfactory  to  the  American  people." 
' i  On  the  contrary,  candor  compels  me  to  declare  that  at 
this  time  there  is  no  Union,  as  our  Fathers  understood 
the  term  and  as  they  meant  it  to  be  understood  by  us. ' ' 
He  coolly  recommends  "the  repeal  of  the  acts  of  Con 
gress  which  place  ten  of  the  Southern  States  under  the 
domination  of  military  masters."  He  affects  to  hope 
that  the  majority  may  by  "calm  reflection"  become  sat 
isfied  that  those  acts  are  in  direct  violation  of  the  Con 
stitution,  in  which  event  he  "does  not  doubt"  but  that 
they  "will  immediately  strike  them  from  the  statute 
books."  The  President  then  warns  Congress  of  the 


310  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

tremendous  scale  of  expenditure  these  measures  necessi 
tate: 

"It  will  require  a  strong  standing  army,  and  probably 
more  than  two  hundred  million  dollars  per  annum  to  main 
tain  the  supremacy  of  negro  governments  after  they  are 
established.  The  sum  thus  thrown  away  would,  if  properly 
used,  form  a  sinking  fund  large  enough  to  pay  the  whole 
national  debt  in  less  than  fifteen  years.  It  is  vain  to  hope 
that  negroes  will  maintain  their  ascendency  themselves. 
Without  military  power  they  are  wholly  incapable  of  hold 
ing  in  subjection  the  white  people  of  the  South." 

For  the  first  time  he  broaches  a  question  fraught  with 
peril: 

* '  How  far  the  duty  of  the  President  '  to  preserve,  protect, 
and  defend  the  Constitution '  requires  him  to  go  in  opposing 
an  unconstitutional  act  of  Congress  is  a  very  serious  and 
important  question.  .  .  .  Where  an  act  has  been  passed 
according  to  the  forms  of  the  Constitution  by  the  supreme 
legislative  authority,  .  .  .  executive  resistance  to  it,  es 
pecially  in  times  of  high  party  excitement,  would  be  likely 
to  produce  violent  collision  between  the  respective  adher 
ents  of  the  two  branches  of  the  Government.  This  would 
be  simply  civil  war;  and  civil  war  must  be  resorted  to  as 
the  last  remedy  for  the  worst  of  evils. ' ' 

"It  is  true  that  cases  may  occur  in  which  the  Executive 
would  be  compelled  to  stand  on  his  rights,  and  maintain 
them,  regardless  of  all  consequences.  If  Congress  should 
pass  an  act  which  is  not  only  in  palpable  conflict  with  the 
Constitution,  but  will  certainly,  if  carried  out,  produce 
immediate  and  irreparable  injury  to  the  organic  structure 
of  the  Government,  and  if  there  be  neither  judicial  remedy 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     311 

for  the  wrong  it  inflicts  nor  power  in  the  people  to  protect 
themselves  without  the  official  aid  of  their  elected  defender; 
if,  for  instance,  the  legislative  department  should  pass  an 
act  even  through  all  the  forms  of  law  to  abolish  a  coordi 
nate  department  of  the  Government;  in  such  a  case  the 
President  must  take  the  high  responsibilities  of  his  office, 
and  save  the  life  of  the  nation  at  all  hazards."* 

Such  pungent  utterances  were  too  much  for  the  tem 
per  of  the  Senate.  Drake  proposed  a  joint  resolution 
of  censure  in  which  the  rule  was  prescribed  "that  when 
any  act  had  been  passed  by  two-thirds  of  both  Houses 
over  the  President's  objections,  any  subsequent  official 
denouncement  of  it  by  him  as  unconstitutional,  in  the 
absence  of  any  adjudication  to  that  effect  by  the  supreme 
judiciary  of  the  nation,  is  a  departure  from  official 
propriety,  and  a  breach  of  official  obligation,  justifying 
and  calling  for  the  distinct  reprehension  on  the  part  of 
the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Representatives";  and 
made  a  speech  upon  it  wherein  he  showed  his  own  notion 
of  the  courtesy  due  from  one  coordinate  branch  of  the 
government  to  another  by  calling  the  President  "the 
nightmare  that  crouches  upon  the  heaving  breast  of  this 
nation,"  in  one  breath,  and  comparing  him  to  a  "double- 
skinned  rhinoceros,"  in  the  next.  Howard  denounced 
the  message  as  "a  singular  and  most  wanton  libel  upon 
Congress  and  upon  every  member  of  that  body  who,  by 
vote  or  word,  favoured  the  reconstruction  acts."  Sum- 
ner,  likewise,  denounced  it  as  a  libel  and  more:  "It  is  an 
incendiary  document,  calculated  to  stimulate  the  rebel 
lion  once  more  and  to  provoke  civil  war.  ...  It  is  evi- 

*  Message  in  App.  to  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  1. 


312  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

dence  of  a  direct  coalition  between  the  President  and  the 
former  rebels."  And  both  senators  opposed  the  cus 
tomary  motion  to  print* 

In  the  House,  the  message  stirred  the  moribund  im 
peachment  into  some  semblance  of  life.  If  only  its  de 
fiant  tone  would  screw  up  the  courage  of  the  conserva 
tives  to  the  sticking  point,  all  might  yet  be  well !  When 
the  matter  came  up  in  the  House,  Mr.  Boutwell  in  an  able 
speech  exhorted  his  fellow-members  to  adopt  the  only 
expedient  which  he  believed  could  make  the  party  secure. 
He  warned  them:  "We  have  not  seen  the  end  of  this 
contest,"  and,  referring  to  the  message,  prophecied 
"civil  war"  and  "fratricidal  strife"  if  the  arch-apos 
tate  were  not  removed.  But  it  was  of  no  avail.  Since 
the  selection  of  Wade  as  the  heir-apparent,  the  move 
ment  had  flagged ;  the  adverse  vote  of  the  committee  in 
June  and  the  differing  reports  of  its  Republican  mem 
bers  proclaimed  its  failure;  the  elections  gave  it  its 
death-blow;  and  Wilson,  in  his  reply  to  Mr.  Boutwell, 
simply  announced  its  demise.  He  dismissed  the  latter 's 
gloomy  vaticinations  in  the  following  words: 

"Are  we  to  impeach  the  President  for  what  he  may  do 
in  the  future?  Do  our  fears  constitute  in  the  President 
high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  ?  Are  we  to  wander  beyond 
the  record  of  this  case  and  found  our  judgment  of  it  on 
the  possibility  of  the  future?  This  would  lead  us  even 
beyond  the  conscience  of  the  House. 

"Sir,"  he  concluded,  "we  must  be  guided  by  some  rule 
in  this  grim  proceeding— something  more  certain  than  an 
impossibility  to  arraign  the  President  for  a  specific  crime. 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  App.,  pp.  101-2,  20. 


DEFEAT  OF  THE  FIRST  IMPEACHMENT     313 

If  we  cannot  arraign  him  for  a  specific  crime,  for  what  are 
we  to  proceed  against  him  ?  For  the  bundle  of  generalities 
such  as  we  have  in  the  volume  of  testimony  reported  by  the 
committee  to  the  House?  If  we  cannot  state  upon  paper 
a  specific  crime,  how  are  we  to  carry  this  case  to  the  Senate 
for  trial?" 

At  the  close  of  his  speech,  Wilson  moved  to  lay  the 
whole  matter  on  the  table  and  he  had  the  House  with 
him.  But,  after  filibusterng  for  parts  of  two  days,  the 
impeachers  compelled  the  majority  to  consent  that  the 
vote  be  taken  directly  upon  the  question  to  impeach  or 
not  to  impeach  so  as  to  expose  backsliders;  whereupon 
the  resolution  of  the  majority  report  was  rejected  by 
yeas  57,  nays  108,  the  majority  against  it  being  fifty- 
one.  Those  voting  yea  were,  of  course,  all  Republicans. 
Of  those  voting  nay,  forty-one  were  Democrats  and 
sixty-seven  were  Republicans,  among  whom  were  some 
of  the  ablest  men  in  the  House — Banks,  Bingham, 
Blaine,  Garfield,  Dawes,  Spalding,  Washburne  and  Wil 


son.* 


The  primary  and  efficient  cause  of  this  failure,  how 
ever,  as  was  shown  by  the  success  of  the  final  effort,  was 
not  the  indefiniteness  of  the  accusation;  not  the  fliinsi- 
ness  of  the  testimony ;  not  any  lingering  sense  of  justice 
or  of  judicial  impartiality;  but  simply  a  well-founded 
apprehension  that,  if  the  revolutionary  remedy  were 
tried,  it  was  doomed  to  disaster  in  the  Senate.  Garfield, 
a  few  weeks  later,  disclosed  the  motive  that  governed 
half,  at  least,  of  the  Republican  members  who  voted  in 
the  negative,  in  confessing  his  own : 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  68. 


314    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

""When  the  proposition  for  the  impeachment  of  the  Presi 
dent  was  before  the  House  ...  I  voted  against  it  not  be 
cause  I  did  not  believe  that  his  conduct  deserved  the  severest 
condemnation  but  because  I  did  not  believe  the  attempt 
was  likely  to  be  successful.  ...  It  seemed  to  me  it  would 
be  manifestly  an  interminable  contest;  that  the  President 
would  pass  out  of  office  by  expiration  of  term  before  it 
would  be  possible  to  conclude  such  a  trial.  And  unwilling, 
therefore,  to  divert  the  attention  of  Congress  from  its 
legislative  duties  into  a  struggle  of  that  sort,  only  to  be 
foiled  at  last,  I  thought  it  best  to  vote  against  them  and 
I  did  so."* 

This  state  of  mind  of  the  neutrals  was  well-known  to 
the  sturdy  phalanx  of  Impeachers  who,  consequently, 
notwithstanding  their  defeat,  did  not  relinquish  hope. 
They  haunted  the  vicinity  of  Stanton  who  sulked  apart 
in  his  enforced  retirement.  They  counted  it  certain  that, 
should  a  sudden  access  of  pugnacity  overmaster  the 
President's  wariness  and  furnish  the  technical  occasion, 
the  timid  would  no  longer  hold  back.  * '  Give  us  a  spe 
cific  offence ! ' '  they  cried :  i '  no  matter  about  its  crim 
inality,  only  let  it  be  specific ! ' ' 


Five  days  after  the  impeachment  was  voted  down  in 
the  House,  the  President  sent  to  the  Senate  his  reasons 
for  the  suspension  of  the  Secretary  of  War.  The  paper 
was  a  strong  presentation  of  the  case  on  his  part,  espe 
cially  keen  and  cutting  in  its  analysis  of  Stanton 's  two 
insolent  notes.  The  communication  was  referred  to  the 
committee  on  Military  Affairs  composed  of  six  radicals 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  1560. 


REINSTATEMENT   OF   ST ANTON  315 

and  but  one  friend  of  the  President  (Doolittle) ;  and  to 
Howard,  one  of  the  most  uncompromising  of  the  six, 
was  assigned  the  task  of  refuting  the  President's  "rea 
sons"  and  vindicating  the  loyalty  of  the  suspended  of 
ficer.  The  President,  in  the  meantime,  could  not  refrain 
from  indulging  in  a  pleasure  which  he  must  have  known 
would  exasperate  his  judges  on  the  committee.  In  July 
last,  the  House  had  passed  votes  of  thanks  to  Sheridan, 
Sickles  and  Pope— the  military  commanders  most 
inimical  to  the  President.  Now,  the  President  sends  in 
an  official  copy  of  General  Hancock's  celebrated  order, 
and,  after  stating  that  * '  the  distinguished  lionor  belongs 
to  him  of  being  the  first  officer  in  high  command  south 
of  the  Potomac  since  the  close  of  the  civil  war  who  has 
given  utterance  to  these  noble  sentiments  in  the  form  of 
a  military  order,"  "respectfully  suggests  to  Congress 
that  some  public  recognition  of  General  Hancock's  pa 
triotic  conduct  is  due,  if  not  to  him,  to  the  friends  of 
law  and  justice  throughout  the  country.  Of  such  an  act 
as  his,  at  such  a  time,  it  is  but  fit  that  the  dignity  should 
be  vindicated  and  the  virtue  proclaimed,  so  that  its  value 
as  an  example  may  not  be  lost  to  the  nation."  But 
resolutions  of  thanks  to  Hancock  could  get  no  hearing; 
and  the  Houses  took  the  usual  holiday  recess  in  the  midst 
of  the  agitation  caused  by  the  call  of  the  Republican 
national  convention  to  meet  on  the  twentieth  of  May 
next  to  nominate  candidates  for  President  and  Vice 
President,  Grant  was  evidently  the  coming  man;  and 
those  radicals  who  were  still  disgruntled  over  his  ap 
parent  closeness  to  the  administration  were  driven  to 
muttering  among  themselves  the  dubious  name  of  Chase. 

*  (ll(jl)€,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  250. 


316  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

For  some  reason — it  may  be  the  alarming  conduct  of 
Hancock  during  the  recess,  or  the  McCardle  case  involv 
ing  the  question  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  recon 
struction  acts,  over  which  the  Supreme  Court  had  just 
affirmed  its  jurisdiction — the  majority  reassembled  in  a 
sullen  mood.  The  distinction  between  conservative  and 
radical  seemed  to  have  been  obliterated.  Many  mem 
bers  openly  regretted  their  votes  against  impeachment 
and  were  ready  to  welcome  any  occasion  to  repair  their 
mistake.  The  House  at  once  directed  an  inquiry  into 
the  expediency  of  depriving  the  President  of  the  power 
to  detail  the  military  commanders  and  transferring  it  to 
the  General  of  the  army,  or  of  comprising  the  five  dis 
tricts  into  one  and  subjecting  the  entire  region  to  the 
command  of  the  General  alone.  A  joint  resolution  of 
thanks  to  Hancock  being  offered,  Washburne— the  early 
friend  and  now  thought  to  be  the  mouth-piece  of  Grant— 
who  all  along  opposed,  and  who  voted  against,  impeach 
ment,  disclosed  his  change  of  mind  by  offering  as  a  sub 
stitute  a  resolution  "utterly  condemning  the  conduct  of 
Andrew  Johnson  acting  President  of  the  United  States ' ' 
in  removing  Sheridan,  and  thanking  General  Grant  for 
his  letter  of  remonstrance  against  the  removal  ^nd  also 
against  the  contemplated  removal  of  Stanton ;  the  House 
laid  the  one  on  the  table  and  adopted  the  other  in  its 
stead  without  delay.* 

On  Friday,  the  tenth  day  of  January,  1868,  the  com 
mittee  on  Military  Affairs  (having  adopted  the  report 
on  the  suspension  of  the  Secretary  of  War  as  written  by 
Howard)  laid  it  before  the  Senate.  On  every  point  it 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  pp.  331-332. 


REINSTATEMENT   OF   ST ANTON  317 

was  favourable  to  the  displaced  official  and  adverse  to  his 
chief.  It  inculcated  the  doctrine,  in  effect,  that  a  Cabi 
net  officer  was  no  more  the  confidential  servant  of  the 
President  than  the  confidential  servant  of  the  Congress ; 
that  the  President  ought  not  to  be  allowed  the  privilege 
of  suspending  an  officer  so  close  to  his  person  as  the 
Secretary  of  War  merely  because  friendly  relations  or 
even  personal  intercourse  were  no  longer  possible  be 
tween  them ;  that  insolence  on  the  part  of  a  subordinate 
to  his  superior  officer  was  not  official  misconduct;  that 
harmony  in  the  councils  of  an  executive  who  betrayed 
his  party  was  not  at  all  desirable  and  that  a  loyal  ally  in 
the  official  household  of  a  traitorous  President  was  an 
ever-present  help  to  a  patriotic  Congress.  It  defended 
the  Secretary  in  detail  from  the  specific  charge  of  sup 
pressing  the  New  Orleans  telegram  on  the  eve  of  the  riot. 
On  the  other  hand  it  expressly  admitted  that,  at  the  time 
of  the  veto  of  the  Tenure-of-office  bill,  Stanton  "  thought 
the  act  unconstitutional, ' '  at  the  same  time  coupling  the 
admission  with  words  of  praise  that  the  Secretary 
thought,  also,  it  should  be  no  less  obeyed ;  and  there  was 
no  express  denial  of  the  President's  statement  that  Stan- 
ton  united  with  the  other  members  of  the  Cabinet  ap 
pointed  by  Lincoln  in  the  presupposition  that  they  were 
not  within  the  law.  In  fact,  the  report  ignores  the  point 
altogether,  taking  it  for  granted  that  the  President  made 
no  question  upon  it  as  if  there  was  but  one  construction 
possible.  The  Senate  forewent  the  usual  adjournment 
until  Monday  so  as  to  consider  the  subject  on  the  mor 
row.  Rumours  that,  in  case  of  an  adverse  decision,  the 
President  would  throw  the  whole  question  into  the 


318  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

courts  were  in  circulation,  and  his  adversaries  were  anx 
ious  to  balk  him  in  any  such  purpose.  His  whole  plan 
of  action,  it  should  be  remembered,  depended  upon  the 
understanding  between  him  and  Grant  entered  into  in 
the  summer  shortly  after  the  suspension;  and  at  this 
critical  moment,  he  was,  no  doubt,  relying  with  implicit 
confidence  on  the  fulfilment  of  Grant 's  alternative  prom 
ise — a  promise  which  had  been  reiterated  several  times 
since  it  was  made  and  the  fulfilment  of  which,  one  way 
or  the  other,  would  leave  him  still  master  of  the  situa 
tion.  General  Grant?  on  the  other  hand,  having  in  the 
meanwhile  subjected  the  Tenure-of-omce  act  to  a  closer 
reading,  at  length  reached  the  conclusion,  as  he  himself 
states,  that  he  ' i  could  not  without  violation  of  law,  refuse 
to  vacate  the  office  of  Secretary  of  War  the  moment  Mr. 
Stanton  was  reinstated  by  the  Senate":  a  conclusion 
which,  if  he  had  reached  it  at  any  time  before,  he  had 
not  communicated  to  the  President.  As  he  says : 

"Learning  on  Saturday,  the  llth  instant  that  the  Senate 
had  taken  up  the  subject  of  Mr.  Stanton 's  suspension,  .  .  . 
I  went  to  the  President  for  the  sole  purpose  of  making 
this  decision  known  and  did  so  make  it  known.  .  .  .  The 
President,  however,  .  .  .  contended  that  he  had  suspended 
Mr.  Stanton  under  the  authority  given  by  the  Constitution, 
and  that  the  same  authority  did  not  preclude  him  from 
reporting,  as  an  act  of  courtesy,  his  reasons  for  the  sus 
pension  to  the  Senate.  That  having  appointed  me  under 
the  authority  given  by  the  Constitution,  and  not  under  any 
act  of  Congress,  I  could  not  be  governed  by  the  act.  I 
stated  that  the  law  was  binding  upon  me,  constitutional  or 
not,  until  set  aside  by  the  proper  tribunal.  An  hour  or 


REINSTATEMENT   OF   STANTON  319 

more  was  consumed,  each  reiterating  his  views  on  this  sub 
ject,  until,  getting  late,  the  President  said  he  would  see 
me  again." 

Having  thus  informed  the  President  that  he  had 
"changed  his  mind,"  and  that  he  could  not  conscien 
tiously  participate  in  the  plan  to  test  the  question  in  the 
courts,  Grant  did  not  follow  the  other  branch  of  the 
alternative  understanding  and  surrender  his  office  into 
the  hands  of  the  President.  He  insists  there  was,  in  fact, 
no  such  alternative  but,  having  informed  the  President 
that  he  would  not  hold  out  against  Stanton  in  aid  of  the 
President,  that  he  had  fulfilled  the  whole  extent  of  his 
part  of  the  understanding,  even  though  the  result  left 
him  acting  against  the  President  and  in  aid  of  Stanton. 
He  denies  that  he  '  *  promised  to  resign  if  he  did  not  re 
sist  the  reinstatement";  but  he  admits,  "to  soften  the 
contradiction,"  that  "the  President  might  have  under 
stood"  him,  in  their  first  conversation,  to  have  made 
such  a  promise.  That  the  President  so  understood  is 
perfectly  plain,  because,  otherwise,  he  gained  nothing 
towards  the  accomplishment  of  his  purpose  by  the  con 
ditional  understanding  with  his  appointee,  but  was  left 
entirely  at  the  mercy  of  that  person's  future  caprices. 
Even  in  this  very  interview,  as  appears  in  the  version  of 
'Grant  himself,  the  President  confined  himself  to  com 
bating  the  scruples  of  his  subordinate  at  fulfilling  one 
part  of  the  understanding,  not  doubting,  apparently, 
that  in  the  event  of  his  not  succeeding  in  this  direction, 
his  conscientious  appointee  by  discharging  the  other 
part  of  the  understanding  would  enable  him  to  find  a 
more  pliant  instrument. 


320  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

A  very  different  and,  it  must  be  owned,  a  much  more 
logical  aspect  is  given  to  this  interview  by  the  President. 
He  states  that  after  a  free  discussion  of  the  provisions 
of  the  Tenure-of -office  act;— among  other  things  the 
General  expressing  his  aversion  to  subjecting  himself 
to  the  penalties  of  fine  and  imprisonment,  and  the  Presi 
dent  replying  that  the  act  being  clearly  unconstitutional 
its  penalties  were  not  to  be  feared  and  that  he  would 
cheerfully  assume  them  himself ;— Grant,  as  before  in 
their  first  conference,  agreed  that  he  "  would  either  re 
turn  the  office  to  the  President's  possession  in  time  to 
enable  him  to  appoint  a  successor  before  final  action  by 
the  Senate  upon  Mr.  Stanton's  suspension,  or  would 
remain  as  its  head,  awaiting  a  decision  of  the  question 
by  judicial  proceeding";  and  the  interview  ended  with 
the  understanding  that  there  was  to  be  a  further  confer 
ence  on  Monday  when  Grant  was  to  decide  which  course 
he  would  take.  Even  from  Grant's  own  statement,  it  is 
fairly  inferable  that  the  interview  was  indecisive,  at 
least,  of  any  mutual  conclusion,  and  that  both  parties 
contemplated  another  meeting;  although  the  General 
denies  that  he  specifically  agreed  to  see  the  President 
again  on  Monday.* 

While  this  conversation  was  going  on,  the  report  of 
the  committee  on  the  suspension  was  being  considered 
by  the  Senate  in  executive  session.  The  Eepublican 
senators,  as  if  resolved  to  end  the  matter  that  day,  sat 
silent  and  left  the  discussion  to  the  other  side.  But 
Dixon's  physical  weakness,  evident  while  addressing  his 

*  For  Grant's  letter  see  McPh.  Recon.,  p.  283.  For  the  President's, 
see  id.,  p.  284. 


REINSTATEMENT   OF   STANTON  321 

associates,  forced  them  to  consent  at  last  to  carry  the 
debate  over  until  Monday.  An  ominous  resolution  intro 
duced  on  that  day  (the  thirteenth)  by  Edmunds,  before 
going  into  secret  session,  to  inquire  concerning  rules  of 
procedure  in  cases  of  impeachment  and  the  suspension 
of  the  officer  impeached,  showed  that  rumours  were 
abroad  that  the  President  meant  to  disregard  an  adverse 
decision  of  the  Senate,  and  suggests  also  the  probability 
that  from  some  authoritative  source  the  salient  par 
ticulars  of  the  Saturday  interview  between  Grant  and 
the  President  had  been  communicated  to  the  Republican 
senators  over  Sunday.  After  adopting  Edmunds '  reso 
lution,  the  Senate  hurried  into  executive  session  to  finish 
the  pending  business.  Six  hours  more  were  spent  in  dis 
cussion,  the  majority,  to  a  certain  extent,  abandoning 
their  policy  of  silence  so  far  as  to  break  forth  into 
eulogies  of  Stanton,  in  which  it  was  noted  Fessenden 
was  profuse.  Then  came  the  vote  of  non-concurrence— 
thirty-five  yeas,  all  Republicans,  including  Fessenden, 
Fowler  and  Trumbull  of  the  seven  who  subsequently 
voted  * '  Not  Guilty  " ;  six  nays,  all  Democrats  or  admin 
istration  men.  There  being  one  vacancy  out  of  fifty-four 
senators  (Thomas,  of  Maryland,  kept  out)  there  were 
twelve  votes  lacking;  five  of  the  opposition  and  seven 
of  the  majority.  Of  these  seven,  two  (Henderson  and 
Van  Winkle)  wTere  paired  with  two  opposition  senators 
in  favour  of  non-concurrence;  three  (Grimes,  Sprague 
and  Yates)  were  absent;  and  one  (Ross)  did  not  vote. 
The  one  remaining  was  Sherman ;  and  his  predicament 
must  have  been  distressing.*  The  precise  case  he  put 

*  Vote  in  McPherson  Recon.,  p.  202    (error  as  to  Vickers). 
21 


322  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

during  the  debate  on  the  Tenure-of -office  bill— the  case 
when  a  Cabinet  officer  attempts  ' l  to  hold  office  a  moment 
beyond  the  time  when  he  retains  the  entire  confidence  of 
the  President, '  'when' '  the  personal  relations  of  a  Cabinet 
officer  and  the  President  become  unpleasant  so  that  they 
can  have  no  social  intercourse ' ' ;  the  very  case,  he  said 
he  could  not  * i  imagine, ' '  in  which  case,  he  declared,  he 
' '  would  not  vote  to  retain  him, "  "  would  as  soon  think 
of  imposing  upon  the  President  a  private  secretary," 
that  "any  gentleman  fit  to  be  a  Cabinet  minister  who 
receives  an  intimation  from  his  chief  that  his  longer  con 
tinuance  in  that  office  was  unpleasant  to  him  would 
necessarily  resign"  and  "if  he  didn't  would  show  that 
he  was  unfit  to  be  there"— this  very  case  with  un- 
thought-of  aggravation  was  now  before  him.  In  the  face 
of  his  own  printed  words,  he  could  not  for  very  shame 
vote  to  disapprove  the  suspension  and  thus  force  Stanton 
back  upon  his  unwilling  master;  but  still,  it  seems,  he 
could  not  muster  up  the  boldness  affirmatively  to  sustain 
the  President  and,  therefore,  kept  silent.* 

On  the  day  this  vote  was  taken  (Monday),  General 
Grant,  whether  he  promised  to  or  not,  did  not  call  on 
the  President  to  continue  the  unfinished  conversation  of 
Saturday ;  but  in  his  stead  sent  General  Sherman,  who 
had  been  engaged  on  Saturday  evening  with  Reverdy 
Johnson  in  devising  some  such  adjustment  of  the  com 
plication,  to  urge  on  the  President  the  nomination  of 
Governor  Cox  of  Ohio,  as  Secretary  of  War,  '  *  and  thus 
save  all  embarrassment."  That  night  at  about  nine 
o  'clock,  the  official  notification  of  the  action  of  the  Senate 

*  Ch.  II,  supra,  pp.  104-5. 


REINSTATEMENT   OF   STANTON  323 

reached  Stanton,  Grant-  and  the  President.  Tuesday 
morning  early  (fourteenth)  the  Secretary  of  War  ad 
interim  went  to  the  War  Office  building,  entered  his 
room,  "bolted  one  door  on  the  inside,  locked  the  other 
on  the  outside,  delivered  the  key  to  the  Adjutant  Gen 
eral"  and  walked  over  to  his  old  quarters  on  the  oppo 
site  side  of  the  street.  Stanton  must  have  been  in  the 
building  already,  for  the  acting  Adjutant-General  l  i  then 
went  up-stairs"  and  handed  him  the  key,  and  he  forth 
with  marched  into  the  vacant  apartments,  and  sent  a 
curt  message  to  the  General  of  the  Army  that  "he 
wanted  to  see  him."  Neither  of  these  subordinates 
showed  the  slightest  regard  for  what  might  be  the  will 
of  their  superior  officer  in  this  affair,  or  the  slightest  con 
sciousness  that  the  President  had  any  jurisdiction  in  the 
premises.  Stanton  never  ventured  to  attend  a  meeting 
of  the  Cabinet,  to  enter  the  White  House,  or  to  show  his 
face  to  his  offended  chief.  He  did  not  think  it  necessary 
even  to  notify  the  President  that  his  assiduous  counsellor 
was  at  his  service  once  more.  Grant  was  more  scrupu 
lous,  and  on  the  same  morning  sent  to  the  President  a 
written  notification  that,  on  the  receipt  of  the  official 
action  of  the  Senate,  his  ' '  functions  as  Secretary  of  War 
ad  interim  ceased,  "f  The  messenger  who  carried  the 
note  returned  with  the  verbal  reply  that  the  President 
wanted  to  see  his  Secretary  of  War  ad  interim  at  the 
regular  Cabinet  meeting  to  take  place  that  day  at  noon. 

*  1.  Grant's  letter,  McPh.  Recon.,  p.  283;  cf.  Johnson's,  p.  285.  2. 
Letter  of  0.  H.  Browning,  Sec.  Int.,  id.,  pp.  289-290;  cf.  Gen  Sherman's 
Mem.  (4th  ed.,  two  vols.  in  one),  Vol.  2,  pp.  420-2,  with  Gorham's  Life 
of  Stanton,  Vol.  2,  p.  428. 

t  McPh.  Recon.,  p.  262. 


324  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

All  were  present  except  Stanbery  when  Grant  entered 
and  took  his  accustomed  seat.  Andrew  Johnson  sat  at 
the  head  of  the  table.  Beginning  with  the  Secretary  of 
State,  he  proceeded  with  the  customary  call  upon  the 
heads  of  the  Departments  in  their  order,  and,  reaching 
the  Department  of  War,  inquired  of  Secretary  Grant  if 
he  had  anything  to  present.  Grant  protested  that  he  was 
not  in  attendance  as  a  Cabinet  minister  but  in  obedience 
to  the  President 's  request ;  relating  what  he  had  done  in 
consequence  of  the  Senate's  action.  The  President 
thereupon  plied  the  General  with  the  following  ques 
tions:  First,  "Did  you  not  agree  shortly  after  your 
appointment  as  Secretary  of  War  ad  interim  either  to 
remain  at  the  head  of  the  War  Department  and  abide 
any  judicial  proceeding  that  might  follow  the  non-con 
currence  by  the  Senate  in  Mr.  Stanton's  suspension,  or, 
should  you  wish  not  to  become  involved  in  such  a  con 
troversy,  to  put  me  in  the  same  position  in  respect  to  the 
office  as  I  occupied  previous  to  your  appointment,  by 
returning  it  to  me  in  time  to  anticipate  such  action  by  the 
Senate?"  This  Grant  admitted.  Second,  "At  our  con 
ference  on  Saturday,  when  to  avoid  misunderstanding  I 
requested  you  to  state  what  you  intended  to  do,  did  you 
not  refer  to  our  former  conversations,  saying  that  from 
them  I  understood  your  position  and  that  your  action 
would  be  consistent  with  the  understanding  which  had 
been  reached?"  To  this  question  Grant  replied  in  the 
affirmative.  Third,  ' '  At  the  conclusion  of  our  interview 
on  Saturday  was  it  not  understood  that  we  were  to  have 
another  conference  on  Monday  before  final  action  by 
the  Senate?"  To  this  question  General  Grant  replied 


REINSTATEMENT   OF   STANTON  325 

that  such  was  the  understanding  but  that  he  did  not  sup 
pose  the  Senate  would  act  so  soon,  and  that  on  Monday 
he  had  been  engaged  in  a  conference  with  General  Sher 
man  and  many  little  matters  and  expected  General  Sher 
man  to  call  on  the  President  with  regard  to  the  affair  of 
the  War  Department,  asking  whether  General  Sherman 
had  not  called  that  day.*  The  colloquy  was  "respectful 
and  courteous  on  both  sides, '  'f  and  the  meeting  seems  to 
have  ended  without  altercation  or  ill-blood,  the  substance 
of  what  was  said  appearing  in  print  the  next  day.  On 
that  day— Wednesday,  the  fifteenth— General  Grant,  in 
company  with  General  Sherman,  had  an  interview  with 
the  President  during  which  Grant  complained  of  the 
report  in  the  newspaper  as  doing  him  much  injustice. 
He,  also,  stated,  either,  as  he  himself  says,  that  he 
thought  Stanton  would  resign,  or,  as  the  President  says, 
that  he  would  urge  Stanton  to  do  so.  On  Saturday,  the 
eighteenth,  General  Sherman  addressed  a  letter  to  the 
President  stating : 

"At  a  conversation  with  the  General  (Grant)  after  our 
interview,  (of  the  15th)  wherein  I  offered  to  go  with  him 
on  Monday  morning  to  Mr.  Stanton  and  say  that  it  was 
our  joint  opinion  he  should  resign,  it  was  found  impossible, 
by  reason  of  his  going  to  Richmond  and  my  going  to  An 
napolis.  The  General  proposed  this  course.  He  will  call 
on  you  to-morrow  and  offer  to  go  to  Mr.  Stanton  to  say 
that  for  the  good  of  the  service  of  the  country  he  ought  to 
resign— this  on  Sunday.  On  Monday  I  will  call  on  you 
and  if  you  think  it  necessary  I  will  do  the  same— call  on 

*  Grant- Johnson  cor.,  ]\IePh.  Recon.,  pp.  285-6. 
t  Seward's  letter,  id.,  p.  201. 


326  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Mr.  Stan  ton  and  tell  him  he  should  resign.  If  he  will  not, 
there  will  be  time  to  contrive  ulterior  measures.  In  the 
meantime  it  also  happens  that  no  necessity  exists  for  pre 
cipitating  matters. ' ' 

On  Sunday  (nineteenth),  accordingly,  Grant  did  call 
on  the  President  and  made  the  offer  General  Sherman 
describes,  and  the  President  took  this  occasion  to  give 
him  verbal  instructions  to  obey  no  order  from  Stanton 
as  Secretary  of  War  unless  he  had  information  it  was 
issued  by  the  President's  directions.  Grant  then  went 
to  Stanton  to  advise  him  he  ought  to  resign  but  found 
that ' '  any  advice  to  him  of  that  kind  would  be  useless ' ' ; 
and  on  the  next  day  he  departed  for  Richmond.  Up  to 
this  date,  there  appears  to  have  been  no  interruption  of 
the  courteous  relations  subsisting  between  the  President 
and  the  General,  notwithstanding  the  trickery  of  which 
the  President  believed  himself  the  victim,  on  the  one 
hand,  or  the  "injustice"  which  the  General  complained 
had  been  done  him  by  the  published  colloquy  in  the  Cabi 
net,  on  the  other ;— an  account  which  the  President,  find 
ing  "substantially  correct,"  submitted  to  four  of  the 
five  Cabinet  ministers  present  who  "concurred  in  its 
general  accuracy."  Indeed,  according  to  the  recollec 
tion  of  General  Schofield,  then  in  command  of  the  Vir 
ginia  District,  Grant,  at  the  very  time  of  this  visit,  said 
to  him  that  the  conduct  of  Stanton  had  become  intoler 
able  and  declared  in  emphatic  terms  his  intention  to  de 
mand  either  the  removal  of  Stanton  or  the  acceptance 
of  his  own  resignation.*  ' 

*  For  interview  of  fifteenth,  Johnson's  letter  in  McPh.  Recon.,  at  p. 
286.     Gen.   Sherman's  Mem.    (ed.  ut  supra],  Vol.  2,  p.  423.     For  Gen. 


REINSTATEMENT  OF   STANTON  327 

Be  this  as  it  may,  almost  immediately  after  bis  return 
from  Richmond,  he  made  the  first  unmistakably  hostile 
move  against  the  President  and  that,  too,  manifestly  in 
concert  with  Stanton  and  Stanton 's  allies.  On  Friday 
(twenty- fourth),  he  sent  a  letter,  dated  at  Washington, 
to  the  President  requesting  to  have  in  writing  the  verbal 
instructions  to  disregard  the  orders  of  Stanton,  which 
he  had  received  the  previous  Sunday  without  objection 
on  that  score;  and,  on  the  following  Monday  (twenty- 
seventh),  Spalding,  a  strong  opponent  of  the  recent  im 
peachment,  was  put  forward  in  the  House  to  offer  a 
resolution  directing  the  committee  on  reconstruction  to 
inquire  "what  combinations  have  been  made  or  at 
tempted  to  be  made  to  obstruct  the  due  execution  of  the 
laws  "  —  a  resolution  in  effect,  as  subsequently  recognized, 
"renewing  the  prosecution  of  the  President  with  par 
ticular  reference  to  his  controversy  with  General  Grant ' ' 
—which  was  hurriedly  passed  under  a  suspension  of  the 
rules.*  On  Tuesday  (twenty-eighth)  Grant  addressed 
a  letter  to  the  President  that,  for  the  first  time  in  their 
official  intercourse,  betrays  an  intention  to  affront.  Re 
newing  his  request  for  written  instructions  and  announc 
ing  his  purpose  "till  they  are  received"  "to  suspend 
action"  on  the  "verbal  ones,"  he  added: 

Sherman's  letter  see  id.,  pp.  423-4  (wrong  date)  ;  cf.  letter  in  Globe, 
speech  of  Morgan  of  Ohio,  p.  1555.  For  interview  of  nineteenth,  see 
Grant's  request  of  January  24,  1868,  McPh.,  id.,  p.  283,  and  his  letter 
in  McPh.  at  p.  286.  See  Schofield's  Forty-six  Years  in  Army,  p.  413. 
See  note  to  p.  272  supra. 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  784.     Phelps  of  Md.  speech  in  App., 
p.  245. 


328  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

"I  am  compelled  to  ask  these  instructions  in  writing,  in 
consequence  of  the  many  and  gross  misrepresentations  af 
fecting  my  personal  honor,  circulated  through  the  press 
for  the  last  fortnight  purporting  to  come  from  the  Presi 
dent,  of  conversations  which  have  occurred  either  with  the 
President  privately  in  his  office,  or  in  Cabinet  meeting. 
What  is  written  admits  of  no  misunderstanding." 

He  then  gives  his  version  of  the  facts  of  the  case  as  he 
claims  them  to  be,  the  differences  between  which  and  the 
President's  version  we  have  already  sufficiently  indi 
cated.  Respecting  the  Cabinet  meeting  on  Tuesday  (the 
fourteenth),  he  says,  that  " after  hearing  the  President 
through  I  stated  our  conversation  substantially  as  given 
in  this  letter.  ...  I  nowise  admitted  the  correctness  of 
the  President's  statement  of  our  conversations."  Of 
this  letter,  the  only  notice  the  President  took  at  the 
moment  was  to  return,  next  day,  Grant's  note  of  the 
twenty- fourth  with  the  instructions  called  for  in  writing 
indorsed  in  due  official  form  on  its  back.  In  his  acknowl 
edgement  of  its  receipt  (on  the  thirtieth),  the  General 
bluntly  declares: 

' '  I  am  informed  by  the  Secretary  of  War  that  he  has  not 
received  from  the  Executive  any  order  or  instructions 
limiting  or  impairing  his  authority  to  issue  orders  to  the 
Army,"  and  "while  such  authority  is  not  countermanded 
it  will  be  satisfactory  evidence  to  me  that  any  orders  issued 
from  the  War  Department  are  authorized  by  the  Execu 
tive."* 

On  the  receipt  of  this  notice,  the  President  seems  to 
have  given  up  all  hope  of  retaining  the  General  of  the 

*  McPh.,  p.  284. 


REINSTATEMENT   OF   STANTON  329 

army  any  longer  by  his  side.  On  Friday,  the  thirty-first, 
he  wrote  out  his  version  of  the  facts  in  reply  to  Grant's 
of  the  Wednesday  before,  and  sent  it  to  that  officer. 

In  epistolary  controversy  Johnson  was  able  to  unite 
his  dexterity  in  debate  with  his  mastery  of  the  pen,  and 
the  combination  was  irresistible.  The  two  letters  which 
constitute  his  share  of  the  correspondence  furnish  a  per 
fect  example  of  the  refutation  of  an  adversary  by  an 
adroit  yet  strictly  fair  exposition  of  his  own  admissions. 
In  his  first,  the  President  makes  a  succinct  and  careful 
statement  of  his  own  questions  and  Grant's  answers  at 
the  Cabinet  meeting,  which  we  have  repeated  substan 
tially  in  our  account  of  that  incident,  and  adds  that  the 
statement  had  been  read  by  the  Cabinet  ministers  pres 
ent  at  the  interview  and  ' '  they  without  exception  agreed 
to  its  accuracy."  On  the  following  Monday  (February 
3)  the  General  sent  in  an  angry  rejoinder  in  which  he 
tells  the  President  that  his  letter  is  ' '  but  a  reiteration  of 
the  many  and  gross  misrepresentations"  contained  in 
the  newspapers,  and  reasserts  the  correctness  of  his  own 
version,  "anything  in  yours  in  reply  to  the  contrary 
notwithstanding. ' '  In  his  indignation  he  betrayed  what 
he  had  come  to  believe  was  the  real  motive  of  his  accept 
ance  of  office  in  the  summer,  which,  if  true,  gave  the 
whole  transaction  the  character  of  a  conspiracy  by  Stan- 
ton  and  himself  to  deceive  the  President. 

"From  our  conversations,  and  my  written  protest  of 
August  1,  1867,  against  the  removal  of  Mr.  Stanton,  you 
must  have  known  that  my  greatest  objection  to  his  removal 
or  suspension  was  the  fear  that  some  one  would  be  ap 
pointed  in  his  stead  who  would,  by  opposition  to  the  laws 


330  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

relating  to  the  restoration  of  the  Southern  States  to  their 
proper  relations  to  the  government,  embarrass  the  army  in 
the  performance  of  duties  especially  imposed  upon  it  by 
these  laws ;  and  it  was  to  prevent  such  an  appointment  that 
I  accepted  the  office  of  Secretary  of  AVar  ad  interim,  .and 
not  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  you  to  get  rid  of  Mr.  Stan- 
ton  by  withholding  it  from  him  in  opposition  to  the  law,  or 
not  doing  so  myself,  surrendering  it  to  one  who  would,  as 
the  statement  and  assumptions  in  your  communication 
plainly  indicate  was  sought." 

The  close  of  the  letter  would  indicate,  on  the  contrary, 
that  the  writer  considered  that  he  was  the  one  imposed 
upon. 

"And  now,  Mr.  President,  wrhen  my  honor  as  a  soldier 
and  my  integrity  as  a  man  have  been  so  violently  assailed, 
pardon  me  for  saying  that  I  can  but  regard  this  whole 
matter,  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  as  an  attempt  to 
involve  me  in  the  resistance  of  law,  for  which  you  hesi 
tated  to  assume  the  responsibility  in  orders,  and  thus  to 
destroy  my  character  before  the  country." 

That  this  letter  was  the  subject  of  consultation  with 
Stanton  and  with  Grant's  more  intimate  political  dis 
ciples  is  shown  by  what  took  place  in  the  House  while 
it  was  on  its  way  to  the  President.  A  resolution  was 
adopted  requesting  the  Secretary  of  War  to  transmit 
copies  (1st)  of  all  correspondence  between  him  and  the 
Executive  limiting  his  authority  to  issue  orders;  (2d) 
of -all  correspondence  between  him  and  the  General-in- 
Chief  on  the  same  subject;  and  (3d)  of  all  correspond 
ence  which  may  have  been  furnished  him  between  the 
General-in-Chief  and  the  President  relating  to  the  dis- 


REINSTATEMENT  OF  ST ANTON  331 

obeying  by  the  General  of  any  order  of  the  War  Depart 
ment;  and  the  next  day  Stanton  sent  to  the  House  the 
correspondence  between  the  General  and  the  President 
from  and  including  Grant's  note  of  the  twenty-fourth  to 
and  including  the  letter,  extracts  from  which  have  just 
been  given,  with  the  information  that  the  copies  trans 
mitted  had  been  furnished  him  by  General  Grant ;  and, 
concerning  the  other  correspondence  called  for,  stating : 

"I  have  had  no  correspondence  with  the  President  since 
the  12th  of  August  last.  After  the  action  of  the  Senate 
on  his  alleged  reasons  for  my  suspension  from  the  office  of 
Secretary  of  War,  I  resumed  the  duties  of  that  office  as 
required  by  the  act  of  Congress,  and  have  continued  to 
discharge  them  without  any  personal  or  written  communi 
cation  with  the  President.  No  orders  have  been  issued 
from  this  Department  in  the  name  of  the  President,  with 
my  knowledge,  and  I  have  received  no  orders  from  him"; 

and  the  papers  were  forthwith  sent  to  the  committee  on 
reconstruction.* 

In  this  correspondence  was  there  not  to  be  found  a 
specific  offence  expressly  declared  to  be  a  high  misde 
meanour!  Did  it  not  prove  a  violation  of  the  Tenure  act? 
Did  it  not  establish  the  existence  of  a  conspiracy  to  pre 
vent  the  reinstatement  of  Stanton?  And,  surely,  there 
was  the  Conspiracy  act  of  1861  which  made  it  a  high 
crime  for  two  or  more  persons  to  conspire  to  obstruct  the 
execution  of  any  law!  Over  these  questions,  the  recon 
struction  committee  held  high  debate,  and  on  Saturday 
(eighth)  appointed  a  sub-committee  to  take  the  testi- 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  pp.  936,  977. 


332  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

mony  of  General  Grant  and  the  newspaper  reporters. 
On  Monday  (tenth)  Stevens  applied  to  the  House  for  an 
Older  to  have  the  testimony  taken  on  the  late  impeach 
ment  investigation  handed  over  to  his  own  committee, 
so  that  some  of  the  former  charges  might  be  woven 
into  the  present  proceeding.  Brooks,  one  of  the  two 
Democrats  on  the  latter  committee,  apparently  aware 
that  another  letter  from  the  President  had  gone  to  its 
destination  that  morning,  prevailed  on  the  House  to  add 
a  call  on  the  President l  i  for  any  further  correspondence 
he  may  have  had  with  General  U.  S.  Grant  " ;  *  and  the 
next  day  the  President  sent  to  the  House  a  copy  of  his 
last  epistle,  which,  it  may  as  well  be  conceded,  settled  the 
matter  in  controversy.  The  entire  letter  should  be  read,t 
but  we  have  room  for  that  portion  only  which  reviews 
the  disclosure  of  the  hidden  motive  for  accepting  the 
post  of  Secretary  of  War  ad  interim  which  Grant  had 
allowed  to  escape  him. 

"  First  of  all,  you  here  admit  that  from  the  very  begin 
ning  of  what  you  term  'the  whole  history'  of  your,  connec 
tion  with  Mr.  Stanton's  suspension,  you  intended  to  cir 
cumvent  the  President.  This  was  in  your  mind  at  the  time 
of  your  acceptance.  It  was  not,  then,  in  obedience  to  your 
superior,  as  has  heretofore  been  supposed,  that  you  assumed 
the  duties  of  the  office.  You  knew  it  was  the  President's 
purpose  to  prevent  Mr.  Stanton  from  resuming  the  office 
of  Secretary  of  War,  and  you  intended  to  defeat  that  pur 
pose.  You  accepted  The  office,  not  in  the  interest  of  the 
President,  but  of  Mr.  Stanton.  If  this  purpose,  so  enter- 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  1087. 
f  See  McPh.  Recon.,  pp.  287,  288. 


REINSTATEMENT   OF   STANTON  333 

tainecl  by  you,  had  been  confined  to  yourself— if,  when  ac 
cepting  the  office  you  had  done  so  with  a  mental  reserva 
tion  to  frustrate  the  President— it  would  have  been  a  tacit 
deception.  In  the  ethics  of  some  persons  such  a  course  is 
allowable.  But  you  cannot  stand  even  upon  that  question 
able  ground.  The  'history'  of  your  connection  with  this 
transaction,  as  written  by  yourself,  places  you  in  a  different 
predicament,  and  shows  that  you  not  only  concealed  your 
design  from  the  President,  but  induced  him  to  suppose  that 
you  would  carry  out  his  purpose  to  keep  Mr.  Stanton  out 
of  office,  by  retaining  it  yourself  after  an  attempted  restora 
tion  by  the  Senate,  so  as  to  require  Mr.  Stanton  to  establish 
his  right  by  judicial  decision. ' ' 

Quoting  the  passage  of  Grant's  letter  of  the  twenty- 
eighth  ult.  where  he  admits  he  stated  "Mr.  Stanton 
would  have  to  appeal  to  the  courts  to  reinstate  him, ' '  the 
President  continues : 

"Now,  at  that  time,  as  you  admit  in  your  letter  of  the 
3d  instant,  you  held  the  office  for  the  very  object  of  defeat 
ing  an  appeal  to  the  courts.  In  that  letter  you  say  that 
in  accepting  the  office  one  motive  was  to  prevent  the  Presi 
dent  from  appointing  some  other  person  who  would  retain 
possession,  and  thus  make  judicial  proceedings  necessary. 
You  knew  the  President  was  unwilling  to  trust  the  office 
with  anyone  who  would  not,  by  holding  it,  compel  Mr. 
Stanton  to  resort  to  the  courts.  You  perfectly  understood 
that  in  this  interview  'sometime'  after  you  accepted  the 
office,  the  President,  not  content  with  your  silence,  desired 
an  expression  of  your  views,  and  you  answered  him  that 
Mr.  Stanton  *  would  have  to  appeal  to  the  courts.'  If  the 
President  had  reposed  confidence  before  he  knew  your 


334  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

views,  and  that  confidence  had  been  violated,  it  might  have 
been  said  he  made  a  mistake ;  but  a  violation  of  confidence 
after  that  conversation  was  no  mistake  of  his,  nor  of  yours. 
It  is  the  fact  only  that  needs  to  be  stated,  that  at  the  date 
of  this  conversation  you  did  not  intend  to  hold  the  office 
for  the  purpose  of  forcing  Mr.  Stanton  into  court,  but  did 
hold  it  then,  and  had  accepted  it,  to  prevent  that  course 
from  being  carried  out.  In  other  words  you  said  to  the 
President,  'that  is  the  proper  course';  and  you  said  to  your 
self,  'I  have  accepted  this  office,  and  now  hold  it,  to  defeat 
that  course.'  The  excuse  you  make  in  a  subsequent  para 
graph  of  that  letter,  of  the  26th  ultimo,  that  afterwards  you 
changed  your  views  as  to  what  would  be  the  proper  course, 
has  nothing  to  do  with  the  point  now  under  consideration. 
The  point  is,  that  before  you  changed  your  views  you  had 
secretly  determined  to  do  the  very  thing  which  at  last  you 
did— surrender  the  office  to  Mr.  Stanton.  You  may  have 
changed  your  views  as  to  the  law,  but  you  certainly  did  not 
change  your,  views  as  to  the  course  you  had  marked  out  for 
yourself  from  the  beginning." 

Enclosed  with  this  letter  were  letters  of  the  five  Cabi 
net  ministers  present  during  the  interrogation  of  Gen 
eral  Grant  by  the  President  at  the  Cabinet  meeting  of 
January  fourteenth.  Welles,  McCulloch,  Randall  and 
Browning  were  direct  and  explicit  in  their  confirma 
tion  of  the  accuracy  of  the  President 's  version.  Seward, 
in  his  anxiety  to  do  no  injustice  to  the  illustrious  sol 
dier,  allowed  the  inference  that  General  Grant 's  answers 
may  have  been  only  ' '  indirect  and  circumstantial  though 
not  evasive,"  but  the  general  effect  of  his  letter  was  the 


REINSTATEMENT  OF  STANTON  335 

same.*  In  Grant's  rejoinder,  sent  to  the  House  later 
on  the  same  day,  he  makes  no  attempt  to  meet  the 
damaging  inferences  the  President  draws  from  his  own 
admission  but  puts  in  a  technical  defence  against  the 
charge  of  disobedience  of  instructions,  which  bears  clear 
traces  of  Stanton's  hand.f  In  truth,  it  was  his  col 
loguing  with  Stanton,  whose  traits  of  person  and  charac 
ter  he  did  not  like,  whose  pertinacity  in  holding  on  to 
office  he  in  reality  despised,  and  whose  tone  of  official 
condescension  filled  him  with  disgust,  that  landed  the 
unsophisticated  soldier  in  his  present  predicament. 

These  two  letters  followed  the  others  to  the  recon 
struction  committee  and  put  that  body  into  something  of 
a  quandary.  Stevens,  its  chairman,  Boutwell,  Farns- 
worth  and  Paine  were  among  the  fifty-seven  who  voted 
for  impeachment  before  and,  therefore,  might  be  ex 
pected  to  support  impeachment  now.  Farnsworth  after 
wards  told  the  House :  "In  my  opinion  then  and  in  my 
opinion  now  there  was  enough  in  that  (correspondence) 
to  justify  the  impeachment  of  the  President. "  I  Mr. 
Boutwell,  also,  said :  ' '  Upon  the  record,  the  correspond 
ence  between  the  President  and  General  Grant,  it  is  con 
clusively  shown  .  .  .  that  he  intended  by  a  contrivance, 
by  a  fraud,  by  a  conspiracy,  by  a  usurpation,  in  defiance 
of  law,  to  oust  Mr.  Stanton  from  office. ' '  §  Stevens  was 
known  to  be  ready  at  any  and  all  times  to  impeach 
Andrew  Johnson  on  general  principles  of  party  policy. 

*  See  Letters  in  McPh.  Recon.,  pp.  289-91. 
t  Id.,  p.  292. 

$  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  1344. 
\  Globe,  App.,  pp.  161. 


336  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

The  three  other  Republican  members,  judging  from 
their  subsequent  utterances,  must  have  been  of  the  same 
Opinion.  Bingham,  in  his  argument  before  the  Senate 
on  the  trial,  insisted  that  Johnson's  letter  of  February 
the  tenth  was  positive  proof  of  guilt  of  having  con 
trived  to  defeat  and  prevent  the  execution  of  the  law.* 
Beaman  told  the  House:  The  President  "attempts  to 
draw  General  Grant  into  a  conspiracy  to  violate  the 
law."t  Hulburd  called  it  "no  less  than  a  mean  at 
tempt  to  inveigle  into  violation  of  law  an  honest  and 
unsophisticated  soldier.  "J  Yet,  notwithstanding  this 
unanimity  of  opinion  among  the  majority,  the  committee 
on  Thursday  (February  13),  on  motion  of  Bingham 
himself,  laid  the  resolution  to  impeach  on  the  table  by 
a  vote  of  six  (including  the  two  Democrats)  to  three. 
The  truth  is  that  Johnson's  last  letter  killed  this  second 
impeachment  project.  How  could  they  impeach  him  of 
conspiracy  without  implicating  his  co-conspirator?  How 
would  the  testimony  of  the  five  Cabinet  ministers  sound 
before  the  High  Court  of  Impeachment?  Stevens 
stormed  at  such  time-serving  cowardice.  The  old 
veteran  who,  in  truth,  did  not  relish  the  coming  nomi 
nation  of  'Andy's'  Secretary  of  War  ad  interim,  rather 
rejoiced  at  the  plight  in  which  the  correspondence  placed 
Grant. 

"A  daring  and  bold  conspiracy,"  he  told  the  House 
afterwards,  "was  attempted"  by  the  President  "to 
induce  the  General  of  the  Army  to  aid  him  in  defeating 

*  Trial,  Vol.  2,  p.  462. 

t  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  App.,  p.  177. 

J  Id.,  p.  266. 


REINSTATEMENT   OF   STANTON  337 

the  operation  of  this  law;  .  .  .  and  he  says  that  the  gen 
eral  did  enter  into  such  conspiracy  to  aid  him  in  ob 
structing  the  return  of  the  rejected  secretary  notwith 
standing  the  Senate  might  decide  in  his  favour.  This  is 
denied  by  the  General,  and  a  question  of  veracity,  rather 
angrily  discussed,  has  arisen  between  them.  Those  gen 
tlemen  seem  to  consider  that  that  question  is  one  of  im 
portance  to  the  public.  In  this  they  are  mistaken. ' ' 

"Which  is  the  man  of  truth  and  which  the  man  of  false 
hood  is  of  no  more  public  importance  than  if  it  arose  be 
tween  two  obscure  individuals.  If  Andrew  Johnson  tells 
the  truth  then  he  is  guilty  of  a  high  official  misdemeanor, 
for  he  avows  his  effort  to  prevent  the  execution  of  the  law. 
If  the  General  commanding  tells  the  truth  then  the  Presi 
dent  is  guilty  of  a  high  misdemeanor,  for  he  declares  the 
same  thing  of  the  President,  denying  only  his  own  com 
plicity.  No  argument  can  make  this  point  plainer  than 
the  statement  of  the  culprit.  If  he  and  the  General  told 
the  truth  then  he  committed  willful. perjury  by  refusing  to 
take  care  that  the  laws  should  be  duly  executed."* 

But  his  stormings  were  of  no  avail.  The  politicians 
were  victorious,  and  the  second  project  of  impeachment 
followed  the  first  into  the  limbo  of  the  still-born. 

Before  leaving  the  Johnson-Grant  correspondence  we 
ought  to  observe  that  a  perusal  of  these  letters  will 
satisfy  any  candid  person  that  the  claim  of  the  Presi 
dent's  accusers,  that,  in  the  suspension  of  Stanton  and 
the  submission  of  the  reasons  to  the  Senate,  the  President 
was  acting  from  the  beginning  under  the  Tenure-of -office 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  1399. 
22 


338  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

• 

act  and  was  therefore  estopped  from  questioning  either 
its  validity  or  the  fact  that  the  Secretary  of  War  was 
within  its  terms,  is  without  foundation.  As  early  as  the 
seventh  of  February,  senator  Buckalew  speaking  of  the 
correspondence  said: 

"I  understand  from  it  that  the  President  asserts  that  he 
had  power  to  suspend  Mr.  Stanton  independent  entirely  of 
the  act  of  Congress  commonly  called  the  tenure  of  office 
law,  and  that  in  exercising  his  power  of  suspension  he  did 
not  necessarily  proceed  under  the  provisions  of  that  law; 
that,  although  this  act  was  done  by  him  under  his  general 
constitutional  power,  there  was  no  impropriety  in  submit 
ting  his  reasons  for  the  act  to  the  Senate  of  the  United 
States  for  their  consideration." 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  1035. 


CHAPTER    V 

THE  IMPEACHMENT  OF  THE  PRESIDENT 

IN  the  meanwhile,  the  President  was  making  prepara 
tions  to  drive  the  intruder  out  of  the  War-Office.  It  may 
be  that  he  would  have  resented  the  clandestine  reentry 
by  instant  forcible  dispossession,  had  he  not  been  dis 
suaded  from  "precipitating  matters"  (to  quote  from  the 
letter  of  General  Sherman  already  given*),  by  the  assur 
ances  of  that  officer  and  General  Grant  that  they  would 
tell  Stanton  he  ought  to  resign.  It  did  not  take  long, 
however,  to  convince  him  that  there  was  no  hope  in  that 
direction,  and,  further,  that  Grant,  so  far  from  stand 
ing  by  him,  was  in  league  with  the  clinging  official 
who  disregarded  the  advice  given  him  as  though  it  was 
a  part  of  the  game.  From  that  moment  he  delayed  no 
longer.  He  knew  that  the  House  of  Representatives  was 
watching  for  some  misstep  on  his  part  to  impeach  him. 
He  knew  that  a  large  majority  of  the  senators  were  eager 
to  condemn  him,  and  that  the  General  was  ready  with  the 
army  at  his  back  to  carry  the  judgment  into  execution. 
But  his  mind  was  made  up  that  there  was  no  longer  room 
in  one  administration  for  Andrew  Johnson,  President, 
and  Edwin  M.  Stanton,  Secretary  of  War. 

Treading  among  many  pitfalls,  he  recognized  the 
necessity  of  the  utmost  circumspection.  The  customary 

*  Page  325,  supra. 

(339) 


340  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

method  of  removing  a  Cabinet  officer  while  the  Senate 
was  in  session  consisted  in  sending  a  nomination  to  that 
body,  the  confirmation  of  which  ipso  facto  worked  the 
removal.  But,  in  the  present  imbroglio,  this  method  was 
impracticable  because  the  Senate  would  consent  to  no 
appointment  to  displace  Stanton.  The  President,  there 
fore,  fell  back  upon  the  exclusive  power  of  removal 
which  he  believed  was  vested  in  him  by  the  Constitution 
and  to  which  the  circumstance  of  the  Senate  being  in 
session,  though  a  restraint  on  the  power  of  appointment, 
had  no  relevancy.  He  would  remove  Stanton,  and  the 
vacancy  thus  made  he  would  fill  under  the  act  of  Con 
gress  of  February,  1795,  by  a  letter  of  authority  to  some 
person  to  perform  the  duties  of  the  office  until  a  regular 
appointment  could  be  made.  Having  settled  upon  the 
modus,  he  cast  about  for  an  army  officer  with  independ 
ence  of  spirit  enough  to  disregard  the  example  of  Grant 
and  courage  enough  to  beard  the  leonine  War-Minister 
in  his  den.  On  Saturday  afternoon,  the  twenty-fifth  day 
of  January,  he  sent  for  General  Sherman  and  tendered 
him  the  place.  The  General  made  no  final  answer  at  the 
interview  itself,  but  on  the  following  Monday  sent  a 
letter  inclosing  one  from  Thomas  Ewing,  whom  he 
promised  the  President  to  consult,  advising  him  "to 
keep  clear  of  political  complications. ' '  On  the  thirtieth 
(Thursday)  the  President  sent  for  Sherman  again  and 
told  him  that  the  relations  between  himself  and  Stanton 
and  between  Stanton  and  the  other  members  of  the  Cabi 
net  were  such  that  he  could  not  execute  the  office  of  Pres 
ident  of  the  United  States  without  making  provision  ad 
interim  for  the  War-Office ;  that  he  had  that  right  under 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  341 

the  law,  and  his  purpose  was  to  have  the  office  admin 
istered  in  the  interest  of  the  army  and  the  country ;  and 
he  offered  it  to  Sherman  with  that  view.  Sherman  asked 
him  why  the  lawyers  could  not  make  a  case ;  expressing 
his  aversion  to  being  brought  into  any  legal  controversy. 
The  President  replied  that  it  was  found  impossible— a 
case  could  not  be  made  up— adding  quickly:  "If  we 
could  bring  the  case  into  the  court  it  would  not  stand 
half  an  hour."  The  General  hesitated:  If  Stanton 
would  simply  retire,  although  it  was  against  his  inter 
ests  and  his  wishes,  personal  and  official,  he  might  be 
willing  to  administer  the  office  ad  interim.  The  Presi 
dent  thought  him  about  to  yield;  but  Sherman  pressed 
the  point:  "Suppose  Mr.  Stanton  does  not  yield?" 
' '  Oh, ' '  said  Johnson,  '  '  there  is  no  need  to  consider  that 
question;  you  present  the  order  and  he  will  simply  go 
away ' ' ;  Sherman  still  doubting,  the  President  added, l '  I 
know  him  better  than  you  do.  He  is  cowardly. ' '  Sher 
man  begged  for  time  to  reflect  upon  the  subject ;  the  next 
day  (Friday,  the  thirty-first)  he,  by  letter,  finally  de 
clined  the  office  for  reasons  "mostly  personal  in  their 
nature ' ' ;  and,  on  the  fourth  of  February,  in  the  midst  of 
the  furore  raised  by  the  Johnson-Grant  correspondence, 
went  West  to  his  department.* 

The  brother  of  senator  Sherman  evidently  was  not  the 
man  to  take  the  post  Grant  had  deserted,  and  fly  in  the 
face  of  the  Republican  party  by  dispossessing  the  rein 
stated  Stanton.  Still  the  President  did  not  even  yet  re 
linquish  the  hope  of  securing  the  services  of  so  power- 

*Gen.  Sherman's  Mem.  (4th  ed.),  Vol.  2,  pp.  425-6.  Testimony  on 
Trial,  Vol.  1,  pp.  483-5,  521,  529. 


342  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ful  an  ally,  if  not  to  force  Stanton  out,  practically  to 
supersede  both  him  and  Grant  by  elevating  the  Lieu- 
tenant-General  to  a  position  on  a  level  in  authority  with 
theirs.  On  the  twelfth  day  of  February,  in  compliance 
with  the  request  of  the  President,  a  general  order  was 
issued  by  command  of  the  General  of  the  Army  ' '  creat 
ing  a  military  division  to  be  called  the  military  division 
of  the  Atlantic  to  be  composed  of  the  departments  of  the 
Lakes,  of  the  East  and  of  Washington,  and  to  be  com 
manded  by  Lieutenant-General  William  T.  Sherman, 
with  his  headquarters  at  Washington ' ' ;  and,  on  the  suc 
ceeding  day,  the  President  sent  to  the  Senate  a  nomina 
tion  of  the  officer  designated  to  command  the  new  divis 
ion  to  be  brevet  general.  Sherman  telegraphed  to  his 
brother  in  the  Senate  to  oppose  confirmation  and  threat 
ened  to  resign  if  forced  to  come  to  Washington.  The 
telegram  made  confirmation  impossible  and  the  threat 
resulted  in  an  order  relieving  him  of  the  command  of  the 
new  division.  The  President,  then,  turned  to  General 
Thomas;  again  astonishing  the  Senate  by  nominating 
that  officer  first  as  brevet  lieutenant-general  and  then  as 
brevet  general.  But  the  hero  of  Xashville  battle  shrank 
with  unconquerable  aversion  from  political  controver 
sies,  and,  in  a  telegram  to  the  President  of  the  Senate, 
earnestly  requested  that  body  not  to  confirm.  The  only 
vantage-ground  the  President  gained  by  these  ma- 
neuvres,  beside  the  state  of  alarm  in  which  they  threw 
his  adversaries,  was  the  new  military  division  which  still 
remained,  though  without  a  commander,  and  which 
eventually  (on  March  28)  he  filled  up  by  putting  Han 
cock  at  its  head:  that  officer's  differences  with  Grant 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  343 

having  made  it  necessary  to  relieve  him  from  the  com 
mand  of  the  fifth  military  district.* 

Despairing  of  help  from  Sherman,  the  President  at 
length  hit  upon  Lorenzo  Thomas,  the  titular  Adjutant- 
General.  The  selection  was  unfortunate  in  some  re 
spects,  but,  on  the  whole,  in  the  prevailing  dearth  of  fit 
instruments  for  the  President's  purpose,  the  best  that 
could  have  been  made.  A  native  of  Delaware,  sixty- 
three  years  of  age,  a  veteran  of  forty  years '  service, 
Thomas,  it  might  be  said  by  his  critics,  lagged  super 
fluous  on  the  stage.  A  gentleman  of  the  old  school, 
scrupulously  polite,  convivial  in  his  habits  and  some 
what  garrulous  in  conversation,  he  was,  nevertheless,  by 
nature  and  training,  the  embodiment  of  honour  and  the 
pink  of  chivalry.  Having  been  appointed  Adjutant- 
General  in  1861,  in  March,  1863,  he  was  sent  to  the  Mis 
sissippi  river  on  inspection  duty  and  to  organize  the 
negroes  into  regiments.  After  the  close  of  the  war,  he 
was  employed  on  inspection  duty  throughout  the  coun 
try;  the  work  of  the  office  devolving  upon  the  senior 
assistant  Adjutant-General,  whom  Stanton  preferred  to 
have  near  him.  In  fact,  Grant,  if  not  Stanton  himself, 
had  recommended  his  displacement,  but  the  President 
refused  to  set  him  aside.  Since  the  beginning  of  this 
year,  he  had  been  sauntering  about  the  capital,  finishing, 
betweonwhiles,  his  inspection  report  of  the  national 
cemeteries,  and  anxious  to  resume  his  office  duties.  On 
Thursday,  the  thirteenth  day  of  February,  the  President 
sent  for  him  and  gave  him  a  note  addressed  to  Grant 
requiring  his  restoration  which,  accordingly,  took  place 

*McPh.  Recon.,  p.  346.     Sherman's  Mem.,  id.,  p.  432. 


344  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  next  day ;  and  he  signalized  his  reentrance  into  his 
old  office  by  summoning  before  him  the  heads  of  the  dif 
ferent  bureaus  with  their  clerks,  room  by  room,  and 
delivering  a  formal  address  to  each  group,  telling  them 
that  the  rules  governing  attendance  and  office  hours, 
which,  it  appears,  during  the  interregnum  had  been  too 
inflexible,  should  now  be  so  far  relaxed  as  to  be  tolerable 
to  persons  of  gentlemanly  habits.  On  the  eighteenth 
(Tuesday),  the  President  disturbed  him  in  the  midst  of 
such  congenial  occupation  by  sending  for  him  to  say  that 
he  was  thinking  of  making  him  Secretary  of  War. 
Obedience  to  orders  being  the  first  article  in  the  old  sol 
dier 's  creed,  he  signified  his  readiness  to  accept,  al 
though,  perhaps,  somewhat  astounded  by  the  prospect  of 
so  unlooked-for  a  promotion. 

On  Friday,  the  twenty-first  day  of  February,  at  about 
noon,  the  President  summoned  his  restored  Adjutant- 
General  to  the  White  House  and  on  his  arrival  handed 
him  two  papers  which  he  had  already  prepared — one,  a 
letter  addressed  to  Thomas  himself  authorizing  him  to 
discharge  the  duties  of  Secretary  of  War  ad  interim  ;  the 
other,  an  order  addressed  to  Edwin  M.  Stanton  removing 
him  from  office  and  directing  him  to  deliver  the  records, 
papers  and  property  to  Lorenzo  Thomas  appointed 
Secretary  ad  interim — telling  Thomas  to  go  and  deliver 
the  latter  to  the  person  addressed.  Thomas  undertook 
the  embarrassing  mission,  not  only  without  demur,  but 
with  a  sprightliness  indicative  of  an  expectation  of 
enjoyment  in  the  coming  encounter.  The  President  ex 
pressing  his  determination  to  uphold  the  Constitution 
and  the  laws  and  requiring  his  subordinate  to  do  the 


THE  IMPEACHMENT  345 

same,  Lorenzo  Thomas  was  the  last  man  to  say  him  nay. 
Taking  the  two  papers  he  walked  over  to  the  War  De 
partment  building,  mounted  the  stairs,  taking  one  of  the 
assistant  adjutant- generals  with  him,  strode  into  the 
office  where  Stanton  was  embayed  and  handed  him  the 
order  of  removal.  The  War-Minister  was  evidently 
taken  unawares.  Reading  the  President 's  order  he  was 
perceptibly  flurried,  his  first  impulse  being  to  gain  time. 
With  unwonted  meekness  he  inquired:  "Do  you  wish 
me  to  vacate  the  office  at  once,  or  will  you  give  me  time 
to  remove  my  private  property ? "  "At  your  pleasure, ' ' 
was  the  reply.  General  Grant  coming  in,  the  letter  of 
authority  was  shown  him  and  Stanton  asked  to  be  fur 
nished  with  a  copy.  Eager  to  oblige,  Thomas  goes  out 
and  down  to  his  late  office,  has  a  copy  made,  certifies  to 
it  as  Secretary  of  War  ad  interim — his  first  act  in  that 
capacity — goes  back  upstairs  and  hands  it  to  Stanton, 
who  by  this  time  has  so  far  recovered  his  self-possession 
as  to  say :  "  I  don 't  know  whether  I  will  obey  your  in 
structions  or  whether  I  will  resist  them ' ' ;  and  Thomas 
leaves  him  to  his  meditations. 

Walking  back  to  the  White  House  he  informs  the 
President  of  what  had  passed,  who  jumped  to  the  con 
clusion  from  what  he  heard  that  Stanton  would  make  no 
fight  and  that  Thomas  was  virtually  in.  The  only  re 
mark  he  made  was :  ' i  Very  well,  go  and  take  charge  of 
the  office. '  '*  The  regular  Friday  Cabinet  meeting  being 
just  about  breaking  up,  he  congratulates  his  ministers 
on  having  at  last  got  rid  of  their  too  adhesive  colleague, 

*  Thomas'  testimony  on  Trial,  Vol.  1,  p.  415  et  seq.;  Cross.,  432-3; 
Clerks,  215. 


346    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

and  he  sent  a  message  immediately  to  the  Senate  inform 
ing  that  body  of  the  removal  and  the  filling  of  the 
vacancy.  The  likelihood  of  his  impeachment  was  before 
his  eyes,  but  only  because  he  believed  that  the  removal 
was  an  actuality  and  not  a  mere  removal  on  paper.  As 
it  turned  out,  however,  as  soon  as  Thomas  got  out  of  the 
building,  Stanton,  with  no  thought  of  yielding,  started 
to  his  feet  and  hoisted  the  signal  for  succour.  As  quickly 
as  he  could  write  and  despatch  them  messages  were  on 
the  way  to  the  President  pro  tern,  of  the  Senate  and  to 
the  Speaker  of  the  House  stating  that  General  Thomas 
had  just  delivered  to  him  a  copy  of  the  enclosed  order 
which  they  were  requested  to  communicate  to  their  re 
spective  Houses.  The  alarmed  secretary  sent  the  news, 
also,  to  senators  Fessenden,  Howe  and  Conness. 

The  momentous  tidings  threw  the  House  into  a  twitter. 
Members  gathered  in  knots  here  and  there  or  ran  singly 
to  and  fro.  The  committee  of  the  whole  made  an  effort 
to  continue  the  business  in  hand,  but  could  not  keep  it  up. 
It  rose,  the  House  resumed,  the  committee  sat  again  and 
then  rose  again.  The  strain  was  too  great.  Butler 
Jproke  the  spell  by  moving  to  rescind  the  order  devoting 
to-morrow's  session — Washington's  birthday — to  de 
bate  only,  on  the  ground  that  sterner  business  was  likely 
to  be  necessary.  Covode  followed  with  a  resolution  im 
peaching  Andrew  Johnson  for  high  crimes  and  misde 
meanours,  which  was  referred  to  .the  committee  on  recon 
struction  whither  Stanton 's  message  had  already  been 
sent,  and,  within  two  hours  of  the  reception  of  the  start 
ling  tidings,  the  House,  having  initiated  the  counter- 
movement,  adjourned; — many  of  its  members  streaming 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  347 

up  the  avenue  to  solace  the  martyr  of  their  party  clinging 
to  his  post  of  duty.* 

In  the  Senate  the  same  excitement  reigned.  The  mes 
sage  of  the  President  reached  there  about  the  same  hour 
as  Stanton 's  call  for  help.  An  important  debate  on  the 
reconstruction  measures  was  interrupted,  the  senators 
hurried  into  executive  session,  and  seven  hours  elapsed 
before  they  emerged  from  under  the  veil  of  secrecy.f 
The  more  radical  senators— and  they  constituted  a  ma 
jority  of  the  Republicans — were  fully  as  prone  to  pre 
cipitate  action  as  the  majority  of  the  House.  They  even 
went  so  far  that  very  afternoon  as  to  send  an  informal 
committee  to  wait  upon  Stanton  and  advise  him  to  stand 
firm.  Others  sent  letters  or  telegrams  imploring  him  to 
hold  fast  until  they  could  come  to  his  rescue.  Sumner 
despatched  a  paper  to  him  inscribed  with  the  single  word 
"  Stick. ":£  A  few  Republican  senators,  by  reason  of 
their  recorded  opinions  at  the  time  of  the  passage  of  the 
Tenure-of-office  act,  found  themselves  in  an  awkward 
predicament.  The  question  presented  by  the  removal 
wore  a  very  different  aspect  from  the  question  presented 
by  the  suspension.  The  suspension  was  made  as  if  under 
the  Tenure  act  and  the  reasons  of  the  President  were 
submitted  to  the  Senate  for  its  action.  A  vote  to  dis 
approve  committed  a  senator  to  the  opinion  that  Stanton 
was  within  the  act  no  further  than  the  submission  of  the 
reasons  for  the  suspension  to  the  Senate  committed  the 
President.  A  removal,  on  the  other  hand,  was  either 

V  .        s"''-% 

*  (! lobe,  2d  Sess.  40th  COIT^.,  pp.   1326-8,  1330. 
t  1iL,  p.  1310. 
t/c/.,  p.  IGlO/Hubbard^Speech. 


348    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

outside  the  act  or  a  violation  of  it,  and  brought  the  alter 
native  directly  before  the  members.  Of  the  few  senators 
on  the  record  Sherman  was  in  the  most  hopeless  case. 
Publicly,  upon  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  speaking  as  one  of 
the  conference  committee  appointed  on  the  disagreeing 
votes  of  the  two  houses  upon  this  subject,  he  had  declared 
with  emphasis  again  and  again  that  the  Tenure-of-office ' 
act  was  not  intended  to  include  and  did  not  include  the 
Secretary  of  War.  The  majority  found  it  necessary, 
therefore,  to  accommodate  the  steps  to  be  taken  to  the 
feelings  of  their  indiscreet  or  over-scrupulous  brethren ; 
for  it  was  considered  imperative  that  to  prove  an  effec 
tive  bracer  to  the  House  the  condemnation  of  the  Presi 
dent 's  rash  deed  must  receive  the  two-thirds  vote  re 
quired  to  convict  in  cases  of  impeachment.  The  first 
move  in  executive  session  was  made  by  Edmunds,  who 
offered  a  resolution  simply  disapproving  the  action  of 
the  President.  Chandler  moved  to  add  the  words  "  as  a 
violation  of  the  rights  of  the  Senate  and  unauthorized  by 
law. ' '  But  this  was  disagreed  to.  Yates  proposed  to  go 
farther  yet  and  roundly  declare  the  act  of  the  President 
"simple  resistance  to  law  and  revolutionary  in  charac 
ter"  and  "advise"  Stanton  "not  to  surrender  the  office 
to  any  person  whomsoever";  but  this  proposal,  too,  was 
voted  down.  Still,  the  majority  could  not  rest  satisfied 
with  an  expression  of  disapproval  merely.  Such  a  half 
way  measure  brought  no  stimulus  to  the  House,  no  en 
couragement  to  the  besieged  War-Minister.  Wilson, 
accordingly,  moved  a  resolution  which,  if  we  may  credit 
the  statement  of  senator  Fowler  made  in  a  speech  to  the 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  349 

Senate,*  was  drafted  by  a  distinguished  member  of  the 
House,  afterwards  one  of  the  managers  on  the  trial  of 
the  President,  and  so  drafted  as  to  meet  every  difficulty. 
It  declared  * '  that  under  the  Constitution  and  laws  of  the 
United  States,  the  President  has  no  power  to  remove 
the  Secretary  of  War  and  designate  any  other  person  to 
perform  the  duties  of  that  office  ad  interim."  To  such  a 
declaration,  senators  committed  to  the  opinion  that  Stan- 
ton  was  not  within  the  act  could  subscribe  on  the  ground 
either  that  the  removal  was  in  contravention  of  the  Con 
stitution  because  made  during  the  session  and  not  by 
means  of  a  regular  appointment,  or  that  the  designation 
of  a  secretary  ad  interim  while  the  Senate  was  in  session 
was  without  authority  of  law.  In  fact,  Trumbull,  as  he 
afterwards  owned,  voted  for  it  on  the  latter  ground  be 
lieving  at  the  time  that  the  act  of  1795  under  which  the 
President  claimed  to  have  acted  was  repealed.f  The 
resolution  received  twenty-eight  affirmative  votes  includ 
ing  Eoss,  Trumbull  and  Van  Winkle  who  voted  "not 
guilty"  on  the  trial.  The  nays  were  six,  including 
Edmunds,  who  must  have  voted  in  the  negative  solely  on 
account  of  a  formal  preference  for  his  own  resolution. 
There  were  eighteen  senators  recorded  as  not  voting; 
among  them  Fessenden,  who  opposed  the  resolution  in 
the  debate  on  the  ground  that  Stanton  was  not  within  the 
act,  Howe  and  Grimes,  who  were  of  the  same  opinion, 
Sherman,  the  most  deeply  committed  of  them  all,  and 
Henderson  and  Fowler,  who  afterwards  voted  for  ac 
quittal.  Seven  majority  and  five  minority  senators  were 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  4509. 
f  Opinion,  Vol.  3  of  Trial,  p.  326. 


350    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

absent.  The  real  strength,  therefore,  of  the  majority  on 
this  question  was  twenty-eight  plus  the  seven  radicals 
absent  and  Edmunds,  making  thirty-six  in  all — one  more 
than  two-thirds.* 

At  half-past  nine  o'clock  at  night  the  doors  of  the 
Senate  Chamber  were  reopened  and  messengers  sped  in 
hot  haste  to  the  White  House  and  to  the  residence  of  the 
new  Secretary  ad  interim  to  serve  copies  of  the  resolu 
tion^  The  President  was  easily  found,  but  the  lively 
veteran  was  not  caught  until  a  late  hour,  when,  after  an 
agitating  search,  he  was  found  at  a  masquerade  ball.  In 
the  meantime  his  facile  tongue  had  been  making  mis 
chief.  In  the  afternoon  he  unbosomed  himself  to  a  news 
paper  man,  telling  him  that  on  Monday  ( Saturday  being 
a  holiday)  he  would  demand  possession  of  the  War  De 
partment  and,  if  the  demand  was  refused  or  resisted,  he 
would  apply  to  the  General-in-Chief  for  a  force  sufficient 
for  the  purpose.  That  evening  he  reiterated  his  purpose 
to  the  same  reporter,  only  changing  the  day  from  Mon 
day  to  the  next  morning.  To  the  delegate  in  Congress 
from  Dakota  territory,  who  called  on  him  in  the  evening 
to  find  out  what  he  meant  to  do,  he  also  imparted  the  in 
formation  that  he  intended  to  take  possession  the  next 
morning  at  ten  o'clock,  inviting  his  visitor  to  call  and 
see  him  in  his  new  office.  ' '  Suppose  Stanton  resists  ? ' ' 
queries  the  delegate.  l '  I  expect  to  meet  force  by  force. ' ' 
1  i  Suppose  he  bars  the  doors  ? ' '  pursues  this  seeker  after 

*  McPh.  Recon.,  pp.  2G2-3.  (McCreery  and  Vickers  not  yet  seated.) 
Senators  Sumner  and  Williams  in  their  respective  opinions  give  the 
vote  27  to  G,  Trial,  Vol.  3,  pp.  261,  350.  Senator  Yates  in  his  opinion, 
29  to  G,  id.,  p.  107.  N.  Y.  Times  of  22d,  29  to  6.  See  Speech  of  Rep. 
Golladay  in  App.  to  Globe  on  p.  197, 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  351 

evidence.  "I  will  break  them  down/'  was  the  hardy 
response.  These  idle  threats  were  instantly  carried  to 
Stanton  's  headquarters  where  they  raised  a  most  dispro 
portionate  commotion.  Stanton  himself,  since  his  inter 
view  with  Thomas,  had  not  ventured  to  leave  his  rooms, 
but  kept  up  communication  with  the  outside  world  by 
means  of  messengers.  To  him  there  hurried  his  cronies 
of  the  House  and  Senate  and  around  him  they  remained, 
ministering  to  the  wants  of  their  sentinel  in  the  enemy 's 
camp  during  the  silent  watches  of  the  night.  Rumours 
of  the  blood-thirsty  purpose  of  the  over-valiant  Thomas 
pouring  in  fast  upon  them,  at  midnight  the  garrison  re 
solve  to  invoke  the  protection  of  the  law.  They  send 
for  Judge  Cartter  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  District ; 
Stanton  makes  affidavit  that  he  is  Secretary  of  War ;  that 
Andrew  Johnson  has  issued  an  order  to  remove  him 
from  office  and  to  appoint  Lorenzo  Thomas  in  his  place ; 
that  such  order  is  illegal  and  void  and  contrary  to  the 
provisions  of  the  Tenure-of-office  act;  that  Lorenzo 
Thomas  delivered  the  order  to  the  deponent,  is  now  ex 
ercising  the  duties  of  the  office  and  "  gives  out  and 
threatens  that  he  will  forcibly  remove  your  deponent 
from  the  building  and  apartments  of  the  Secretary  of 
War"  and  "forcibly  take  possession";  and  the  affiant 
alleges  that  the  said  Thomas,  by  accepting  said  appoint 
ment  is  guilty  of  a  "  high  misdemeanor ' '  under  the  fifth 
section  of  the  act.  The  judge  signs  a  warrant  for 
Thomas'  arrest  returnable  before  him  at  chambers 
"forthwith,"  and  armed  with  this  document,  William 
A.  Pile,  at  present  a  representative  in  Congress  from 


352    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Missouri— once  a  preacher,  a  chaplain  in  the  army  and 
then  some  sort  of  a  general— sets  out  for  the  house  of 
the  clerk  of  the  court,  " between  two  and  three  o'clock 
in  the  morning ' '  routs  him  up,  takes  him  to  his  office,  has 
him  attest  and  seal  the  warrant,  and  then  proceeds  to 
put  it  into  the  hands  of  the  marshal,  whom,  however,  he 
does  not  venture  to  disturb  until  seven  o'clock.  The 
marshal,  taking  two  assistants,  instantly  starts  in  pur 
suit  of  his  man,  whom  he  finds  at  home  waiting  for  a 
breakfast  the  unsuspecting  criminal  is  destined  never  to 
eat.  Having  returned  rather  late  from  the  masquerade 
ball,  his  purpose  wholly  unaffected  by  the  senatorial  ad 
monition,  the  aged  warrior  takes  his  arrest  with  the 
utmost  coolness,  requesting  only  permission  to  stop  on 
the  way  to  see  the  President.  To  this  the  officer  assents, 
premising,  however,  that  he  ' i  must  not  lose  sight  of  his 
prisoner  for  a  moment ' ' ;  and  he  does  not  lose  sight  of 
him,  following  Thomas  into  the  very  presence  of  the 
President.  The  President  hearing  of  the  arrest  re 
marks:  "Very  well— that  is  the  place  I  want  it  in— the 
courts ' ' ;  and  directs  Thomas  to  go  to  the  Attorney- 
General.  To  the  quarters  of  the  Attorney-General  the 
prisoner  and  the  marshal  go,  and  thence,  after  taking 
the  advice  of  that  officer,  to  the  judge's  chambers  where 
they  arrive  at  nine  o'clock.  There  Thomas  is  held  to 
bail  in  $5,000  for  his  appearance  on  Wednesday,  and,  as 
soon  as  he  is  released  from  custody,  returns  to  the  White 
House.  Hearing  what  was  done,  the  President  says : 
' '  Very  well ;  we  want  it  in  the  courts.  Now  go  and  take 
charge. ' '  Without  another  word  the  obedient  appointee, 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  353 

intent  only  upon  the  performance  of  his  nearest  duty, 
sets  out  to  execute  the  order  of  the  day  before.* 

In  the  meantime,  at  about  ten  o'clock,  the  night- 
watchers  at  the  War  Office  were  relieved  from  duty  by 
the  arrival  of  a  delegation  of  representatives  in  Con 
gress.  There  came  Van  Horn,  Van  Wyck  and  Clarke 
of  Xew  York,  Moorhead  and  Kelley  of  Pennsylvania, 
Dodge  of  Iowa,  Ferry  of  Michigan,  and  Delano  of  Ohio 
—the  last  an  ex-member.  They  came  to  witness  the 
onset  of  Thomas,  if  per  adventure  the  terrors  of  impend 
ing  imprisonment  did  not  deter  the  veteran.  Every  one 
of  his  movements  had  been  followed  with  absorbing  in 
terest.  It  was  known  that,  after  seeing  the  President,  he 
had  been  taken  before  the  judge,  and  that  he  had  re 
turned  to  the  White  House,  where  even  now  he  was 
closeted  with  his  high-placed  accomplice.  All  eyes  were 
fixed  on  the  front  of  that  mansion.  When  the  white- 
headed  old  soldier  emerged  upon  the  lawn  and  turned 
his  steps  towards  the  War  building,  ' '  There  he  comes ! ' ' 
they  exclaimed,  and,  putting  themselves  in  position  to 
cover  their  chief,  they  drew  out  their  pencils  and  ar 
ranged  their  pads.  Thomas,  for  his  part,  as  calm  as  if  on 
parade,  with  no  thought  of  danger  or  trouble,  his  domi 
nant  emotion,  probably,  gratified  vanity  because  of  the 
high  duty  he  was  about  to  discharge,  proceeded  on  his 
way.  The  offices  of  the  War  Department  were  closed  on 
account  of  the  holiday,  and  lie  found  his  own  (as 
Adjutant-General)  locked.  He  then  climbed  the  stairs 

*  See  Testimony  on  Trial,  Vol.   1,  pp.   158-0,  for  service  of  notice; 
threats,  pp.  210,  221,  id.;  affidavit  of  Stanton,  id.,  p.  515.     Proceedings, 
pp.  509,  516;  Thomas'  testimony,  id.,  pp.  427-8. 
23 


354    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

to  Mr.  Stanton's  room,  where  he  found  the  group,  ac 
cording  to  his  own  description,  "all  sitting  in  a  semi- 
ellipsis,  the  Secretary  of  War  at  the  apex. ' '  Three  of 
the  members  of  Congress  present  were  careful  to  take 
notes — Van  Horn,  Moorhead  and  Ferry — and  we  will 
let  one  of  them  tell  the  story. 

At  twenty  five  minutes  past  twelve  m.,  General  Thomas, 
Adjutant  General,  came  into  the  Secretary  of  War's  office, 
saying  "Good  morning,"  the  Secretary  replying,  "Good 
morning,  sir."  Thomas  looked  around  and  said,  "I  do 
not  wish  to  disturb  these  gentlemen,  and  will  wait. ' '  Stan- 
ton  said,  "Nothing  private  here;  what  do  you  want,  sir?" 

Thomas  demanded  of  Secretary  Stanton  the  surrender 
of  the  Secretary  of  War  office.  Stanton  denied  it  to  him, 
and  ordered  him  back  to  his  own  office  as  Adjutant  General. 
Thomas  refused  to  go.  "I  claim  the  office  of  Secretary  of 
War,  and  demand  it  by  order  of  the  President." 

Stanton.  "I  deny  your  authority  to  act  and  order  you 
back  to  your  own  office." 

Thomas.  "I  will  stand  here.  I  want  no  unpleasantness 
in  the  presence  of  these  gentlemen." 

Stanton.  "You  can  stand  there  if  you  please,  but  you 
cannot  act  as  Secretary  of  War.  I  am  Secretary  of  War. 
I  order  you  out  of  this  office  and  to  your  own. ' ' 

Thomas.    "I  refuse  to  go,  and  will  stand  here." 

Stanton.  * '  How  are  you  to  get  possession ;  do  you  mean 
to  use  force?" 

Thomas.  "I  do  not  care  to  use  force,  but  my  mind  is 
made  up  as  to  what  I  shall  do.  I  want  no  unpleasantness, 
though.  I  shall  stay  here  and  act  as  Secretary  of  War." 

Stanton.  "You  shall  not,  and  I  order  you,  as  your  su 
perior,  back  to  your  own  office. ' ' 

*  Trial,  Vol.  I,  p.  428. 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  355 

Thomas.  "I  will  not  obey  you,  but  will  stand  here  and 
remain  here." 

Stanton.  "You  can  stand  there  as  you  please.  I  order 
you  out  of  this  office  to  your  own.  I  am  Secretary  of  War, 
and  your,  superior. ' ' 

Thomas  then  went  into  the  opposite  room  across  hall 
(General  Schriver's)  and  commenced  ordering  General 
Schriver  and  General  E.  D.  Townsend.  Stanton  entered, 
followed  by  Moorhead  and  Ferry,  and  ordered  those  Gen 
erals  not  to  obey  or  pay  attention  to  General  Thomas' 
orders;  that  he  denied  his  assumed  authority  as  Secretary 
of  War  ad  interim,  and  forbade  their  obedience  of  his  direc 
tions.  ' '  I  am  Secretary  of  War,  and  I  now  order,  you,  Gen 
eral  Thomas,  out  of  this  office  to  your  own  quarters." 

Thomas.  "I  will  not  go.  I  shall  discharge  the  functions 
of  Secretary  of  War. ' ' 

Stanton.    "You  will  not." 

Thomas.  "I  shall  require  the  mails  of  the  War  Depart 
ment  to  be  delivered  to  me,  and  shall  transact  the  business 
of  the  office." 

Stanton.  "You  shall  not  have  them,  and  I  order  you  to 
your  own  office." 

At  this  point  the  Congressmen  left  the  scene,  their 
presence  being  required  at  the  House.  What  followed 
their  departure,  it  was  left  to  Thomas  to  relate.  Stan- 
ton  handed  him  a  note,  dated  the  day  before,  forbidding 
him  from  acting  as  Secretary  of  War  ad  interim;  and 
then  the  conversation  continued  as  follows: 

I  said,  "The  next  time  you  have  me  arrested,  please  do 
not  do  it  before  I  get  something  to  eat."  I  said  I  had 
had  nothing  to  eat  or  drink  that  day.  He  put  his  hand 
around  my  neck,  as  he  sometimes  does,  and  ran  his  hand 


356    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

through  my  hair,  and  turned  to  General  Schriver  and  said, 
'  *  Schriver,  you  have  got  a  bottle  here ;  bring  it  out. ' ' 

Schriver  unlocked  his  case  and  brought  out  a  small  vial, 
containing  I  suppose  about  a  spoonful  of  whiskey,  and 
stated  at  the  same  time  that  he  occasionally  took  a  little 
for  dyspepsia.  Mr.  Stanton  took  that  and  poured  it  into 
a  tumbler  and  .divided  it  equally  and  we  drank  it  together. 

A  fair  division,  because  he  held  up  the  glasses  to  the  light 
and  saw  that  they  each  had  about  the  same,  and  we  each 
drank.  Presently  a  messenger  came  in  with  a  bottle  of 
whiskey,  a  full  bottle ;  the  cork  was  drawn,  and  he  and  I 
took  a  drink  together.  "Now,"  said  he,  "this  at  least  is 
neutral  ground." 

Thomas  departed  and  Stanton  barricaded  himself  in 
his  apartments.  No  serious  attempt  was  made  to  molest 
him  further.  On  Monday  and  again  on  Tuesday  Thomas 
called,  renewed  his  formal  demand  and,  receiving  the 
stereotyped  answer,  withdrew.  He  continued  to  attend 
meetings  of  the  Cabinet,  however,  and  was  recognized 
by  the  President  as  Secretary  of  War  ad  interim,  but  he 
did  no  official  act  in  that  capacity.  As  late  as  March 
10th  lie  advised  the  President  to  write  a  note  to  General 
Grant,  directing  that  officer  to  issue  an  order  to  the  dif 
ferent  bureaus  to  send  all  communications  to  him  as  Sec 
retary  of  War ;  but  the  President  remarked  that  the  mat 
ter  better  lie  over  until  after  the  impeachment  trial.* 

While  this  curious  encounter  was  going  on  in  the  War 
Office  the  President,  on  his  part,  did  two  things.  First, 
he  sent  to  the  Senate  the  nomination  of  Thomas  Ewing, 
an  aged  statesman  of  wide  experience,  the  father-in-law 
of  General  Sherman,  for  Secretary  of  the  Department  of 

*  See  testimony  of  Ferry,  Trial,  Vol..  I,  pp.  232-3 ;  of  Thomas,  pp. 
429,  444-6. 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  357 

War ;  but,  the  Senate  having  met  only  to  adjourn  on  ac 
count  of  the  holiday,  the  nomination  came  back.  Second, 
he  sent  for  General  Emory,  who  was  in  the  command  of 
the  Department  of  Washington,  to  ascertain  whether 
there  had  been  any  recent  movements  of  troops  to  or 
around  the  capital,  rumours  of  which  the  President  had 
heard  but  of  which  he  had  no  official  knowledge.  Emory 
informed  him  that  no  movements  had  been  made,  and, 
incidentally,  referred  to  a  general  order  embodying  that 
section  of  the  army  appropriation  bill  fixing  the  head 
quarters  of  the  General  at  Washington  and  making  it 
obligatory  that  all  orders  of  the  President  or  Secretary 
of  War  should  be  issued  through  the  General  of  the 
army— a  section  which,  as  the  President  informed  the 
House  by  message  last  March,  was  a  gross  invasion  of  his 
rightful  prerogative  but  which  he  was  compelled  to 
appear  to  approve  rather  than  veto  the  whole  bill.  The 
President  seems  to  have  forgotten  the  section,  for,  when 
Emory  called  his  attention  to  it,  he  exclaimed :  ' '  This 
is  not  in  conformity  to  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States  which  makes  me  Commander-in-Chief,  or  with 
the  terms  of  your  commission.  Am  I  to  understand  that 
the  President  of  the  United  States  cannot  give  an  order 
except  through  General  Grant?"  That  was  General 
Emory's  impression,  he  said— the  lawyers  had  so  ad 
vised—  Robert  J.  Walker  and  Reverdy  Johnson.  The 
officers  were  "bound  by  the  order  constitutional  or 
unconstitutional."  The  President  let  fall  the  remark: 
"The  object  of  the  law  is  evident."  And  with  this 
harmless  observation  the  interview  terminated.* 

*  Swing's  nomination,  Trial,  Vol.  I,  pp.  555-6;   Emoiy,  pp.  235-C; 
section,  Ch.  II,  supra,  p.  201-2. 


358    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

The  House  met  at  noon,  seething  with  excitement  such 
as  had  not  been  witnessed  since  the  first  days  of  seces 
sion.  Wild  rumours  were  afloat  relating  to  the  employ 
ment  of  troops.  Thousands  of  armed  men  from  Mary 
land,  it  was  whispered,  were  on  the  march  to  protect  the 
President.  The  galleries  were  filled  to  overflowing  with 
a  "vast,  excited  and  expectant  throng ";  the  lobbies 
jammed  with  persons  striving  to  enter  the  chamber,  and 
the  floor  itself,  including  the  seats  of  members,  the  aisles 
and  spaces  outside  the  circle  of  seats  and  in  front  of  the 
clerk's  desk,  uncomfortably  crowded.  The  committee 
on  reconstruction  was  busy  preparing  its  report.  Bing- 
ham,  Farns  worth  and  Bout  well  had  been  appointed  a 
sub-committee  to  take  what  little  testimony  might  be 
necessary  and  to  formulate  the  foregone  conclusion.  But 
they  needed  no  testimony  and  took  none.  The  order  of 
removal  was  before  them;  they  procured  a  copy  of  the 
letter  of  authority  and  with  that  they  considered  the  case 
against  the  President  complete.  The  House  was  im 
patient  to  begin  the  business  of  which  all  foresaw  the 
inevitable  end.  Some  routine  business  was  done.  Pile 
—the  midnight  bearer  of  the  warrant  against  Thomas— 
for  one  bright  moment  distinguished  himself  by  asking 
leave  to  introduce  a  bill  to  abolish  the  office  of  adjutant- 
general.  The  crowd  on  the  floor  and  in  the  galleries 
grew  more  and  more  restless.  Senators,  one  by  one, 
came  wedging  themselves  in  to  watch  the  gestation  of 
the  proceeding  they  were  expected  to  crown  with  judg 
ment;  Wade,  whom  the  result  was  expected  to  make 
President  of  the  United  States,  being  provided  with  a 
seat  near  the  Speaker.  News  of  the  President's  inter- 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  359 

view  with  General  Emory  began  flying  about  the 
crowded  corridors  outside,  penetrated  thence  into  the 
committee  room  and  into  the  House  itself ;— a  panic-dis 
torted  version  filling  the  hearts  of  the  timid  with  appre 
hensions  of  bloodshed  and  haunting  the  minds  of  all 
with  the  uneasy  conjecture,  'Johnson  means  fight  then?' 
At  length,  at  twenty  minutes  after  two  o'clock,  the  com 
mittee  winds  itself  in— Stevens,  feebler  than  usual, 
tottering  at  its  head.  He  presents  the  report  signed  by 
every  Republican  on  the  committee,  a  unit  at  last.  After 
a  reference  to  the  resolution  of  the  twenty-seventh  day 
of  January  directing  an  inquiry  whether  there  existed 
any  combination  to  obstruct  the  law,  came  the  order 
of  the  President  removing  Stanton  and  the  letter  author 
izing  Thomas  to  act  ad  interim,  and  then  the  resolution : 
' '  That  Andrew  Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States, 
be  impeached  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors"  —with 
the  recommendation  of  its  adoption.  Stevens  was  for 
taking  a  vote  immediately,  but,  so  many  of  the  majority 
desiring  to  speak,  it  was  found  impracticable  to  close  the 
discussion  with  the  day ;  and  an  agreement  was  entered 
into  that  the  debate  should  continue  during  the  evening, 
the  session  be  carried  over  until  Monday,  and  the  debate 
continue  on  that  day  until  five  o'clock,  when  the  vote 
should  be  taken. 

In  the  beginning  of  the  debate  the  majority  wore  an 
air  of  unbounded  confidence.  The  very  offence  they  so 
carefully  described  as  a  high  misdemeanour  with  the 
express  view  to  his  impeachment— that  very  offence  the 
President  had  committed.  Said  Spalding,  who  so 
strongly  opposed  the  first  impeachment:  "We  are  not 


360    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

called  upon  to  ascertain  .  .  .  whether  the  President  has 
in  fact  committed  a  high  misdemeanor,  because  Congress 
has,  already,  upon  the  face  of  its  enactment,  declared  the 
alleged  act  of  removal  to  be  such. "  "  Here  in  two  letters 
of  Andrew  Johnson, ' '  said  Farnsworth,  "  ...  we  have 
a  complete  and  perfect  case.  We  need  swear  no  wit 
nesses;  we  need  take  no  further  testimony.  Read  the 
letters — read  the  constitution,  and  read  the  law,  and  the 
case  is  all  there  as  clear  and  plain  as  if  he  confessed  the 
crime"  Ingersoll  prophesied:  "I  shall  for  one  be 
grievously  disappointed  if,  within  ten  days  from  this 
time,  honest  old  Ben  Wade  is  not  President  of  the  United 
States.  .  .  .  Not  more  than  ten  days  ought  to  be  con 
sumed  in  the  trial  of  this  case ;  for  there  is  but  a  single 
crime  and  the  President  has  been  considerate  enough  to 
furnish  the  evidence  of  his  guilt. ' '  Said  another :  "It 
is  of  no  use  to  argue  the  question.  We  have  before  us 
the  law  and  upon  the  Speaker's  desk  the  President's 
admission  that  he  has  violated  the  law. ' ' 

Beside  this  clear  case  for  impeachment  by  the  House, 
the  Senate  also  was  pledged  to  convict.  "Consider," 
said  Bingham,  i  i  the  solemn  judgment  of  the  Senate  pro 
nounced  but  yesterday  upon  this  act  of  removal.  Neither 
the  Supreme  Court  nor  any  other  court  can  question 
or  review  this  judgment  of  the  Senate."  "There 
is  no  question,"  Mr.  Boutwell  exulted,  "as  to  what 
the  judgment  of  the  House  is  to  be  here  and  now,  or  that 
that  judgment  is  to  be  finally  sustained  by  the  judgment 
of  the  Senate."  Still,  as  the  debate  ran  along,  there 
began  to  be  perceptible  an  uneasy  consciousness  of  the 
exceeding  slenderness  of  the  single  charge  to  which  they 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  361 

had  confined  the  case,  and  a  lack  of  conviction  that  the 
act  which  was  the  basis  of  their  proceeding  partook  of 
any  criminality  whatever.  They  read  and  reread  the 
penal  section  of  their  statute  but  the  words  "high  mis 
demeanor,"  "imprisonment,"  "fine"  sounded  like 
empty  words  after  all.  This  troubled  state  of  mind 
betrayed  itself  in  various  forms.  Although  the  leaders 
congratulated  themselves  that  the  charge  was  all  in  a 
nutshell,  they  could  not  keep  within  the  record.  Almost 
every  speaker  on  the  majority  side  deserted  the  case  at 
hand  and  harked  back  to  the  past  misdeeds  of  the  Presi 
dent  for  which  they  were  not  trying  him.  It  was  in  vain 
that  the  Democrats  reminded  them  of  the  two  previous 
attempts  at  impeachment  and  the  "unwilling  verdict" 
wrung  from  this  hostile  Congress  that  "up  to  the  last 
few  days  at  least  the  President  had  so  conducted  him 
self"  that  no  ground  for  impeachment  could  be  found. 
They  would  not  be  bound  by  their  own  self-imposed 
limits.  They  fought  shy  of  the  compact  little  charge 
they  had  so  carefully  formulated,  to  soar  and  expatiate 
over  the  field  of  Andrew  Johnson's  numberless  enormi 
ties  which  they  had  officially  condoned.  Kelley  said: 
* '  The  committee 's  arraignment  is  too  circumscribed  for 
me.  It  presents,  however,  a  single  point  all  sufficient  for 
the  purpose.  But,  sir,  I  hold  and  assert,  that  however 
concise  may  be  the  official  arraignment  we  are  about  to 
bring  to  trial  the  great  criminal  of  our  age  and  coun 
try.  ' '  Ashley  confessed :  "I  regard  this  as  the  smallest 
of  the  many  offences  of  which  this  man  has  been  guilty. 
If  Mr.  Johnson  had  been  guilty  of  no  impeachable 
offence  until  his  removal  of  Mr.  Stanton,  no  one  believes 


362    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

that  a  majority  of  this  House  could  be  induced  to  vote 
for  his  impeachment  now."  Julian  spoke  to  the  same 
effect :  "  It  is  true  the  removal  of  the  Secretary  of  War 
is  a  relatively  small  matter,  and  I  believe  it  would  be 
regarded  as  scarcely  a  sufficient  ground  for  this  proceed 
ing,  if  not  considered  in  the  light  of  greater  previous 
offences."  Butler  "mournfully  remembers  the  act  by 
which  the  President  was  inducted  into  his  high  office, ' ' 
"his  change  of  purpose  in  the  summer  of  1865,"  his 
every  act  of  usurpation  and  violation  of  law  since  down 
to  "his  attempt  to  draw  into  a  conspiracy  with  himself 
the  general  officer  of  the  Armies  of  the  United  States. ' ' 
Mr.  Boutwell  pursues  the  same  course: 

' '  Now  sir,  what  is  the  history  of  this  man  .  .  .  ?  Is  he 
not  the  man  who,  in  the  Senate  Chamber  on  the  ever- 
to-be  lamented  4th  of  March,  1865,  humiliated  the  nation 
and  all  the  people,  dishonored  us  in  the  presence  of  the 
civilized  world,  disgraced  the  office  he  held,  while  Booth 
was  wending  his  criminal  way  through  the  crowds  in  the 
areas  of  the  Capitol  for  the  purpose  of  assassinating  the 
President  of  the  nation  who  within  forty  days  thereafter 
was  destined  to  fall  by  the  hand  of  the  assassin?  Is  he 
not  the  man  who,  in  violation  of  his  oath  of  office,  appointed 
men  to  places  of  trust  and  power  throughout  the  ten  States 
of  the  South  who  could  not  take  the  oath  of  office  prescribed 
by  the  law  of  the  country?" 

He  concludes  by  indicating  "the  plot  in  which  the 
President  is  engaged. ' ' 

"He  desired  first  to  get  control  of  the  War  Department 
.  .  .  for  the  purpose  of  enabling  him  to  succeed  in  his 
aspirations  for  the  Presidency.  He  knew  that  if  he  could 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  363 

corrupt  the  leader  of  the  Army  .  .  .  these  ten  States  were 
in  his  control,  and  that  he  could  send  to  the  Democratic 
party  convention  .  .  .  men  who  would  sustain  his  claim  for 
the  Presidency.  .  .  .  He  could  secure  the  electoral  votes  of 
these  ten  States  by  excluding  the  negroes  whom  we  have 
enfranchised  from  all  participation  in  the  election. 

"If,  by  fortune,  as  was  his  hope,  he  could  receive  a  suf 
ficient  number  of  votes  in  the  North  to  make  a  majority, 
then,  with  the  support  of  the  Army  which  he  had  corrupted, 
he  had  determined  to  be  inaugurated  President  of  the 
United  States  at  the  hazard  of  civil  war.  To-day,  sir,  we 
escape  from  these  evils  and  dangers." 

The  essential  insincerity  of  the  present  proceeding 
was  made  plainer  still  by  the  floods  of  irrelevant  abuse 
the  speakers  showered  upon  the  President.  Farnsworth 
called  him:  "This  ungrateful,  despicable,  besotted, 
traitorous  man";  "this  accidental  President  made  so  by 
the  assassin's  pistol."  Logan  exhausted  his  vocabulary 
in  an  effort  to  enumerate  the  offences  of  the  President : 

"He  has  not  only  insulted  the  nation  by  his  conduct  as 
President  of  the  Senate,  but  he  has  disgraced  that  high 
office  in  which  he  was  placed  by  the  death  of  his  illustrious 
predecessor ;  he  has  dragged,  as  a  demagogue,  the  robes  of 
his  high  official  position  in  the  purlieus  and  filth  of  treason. 
...  He  has  done  every  act  a  man  can  conceive,  not  only 
calculated  to  degrade  himself,  but  to  destroy  the  rights  of 
the  American  people." 

One  member  compared  the  President  to  Nero  who 
"poisoned  his  brother"  and  "assassinated  his  wife  and 
mother."  Washburne— the  silent  but  stern  contemner 


364    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

of  the  first  attempt  at  impeachment— outdid  them  all  in 
the  fierceness  of  his  invective : 

"His  whole  official  career  as  President  has  been  marked 
by  a  wicked  disregard  of  all  the  obligations  of  public  duty 
and  by  a  degree  of  perfidy  and  treachery  and  turpitude 
unheard  of  in  the  history  of  the  rulers  of  a  free  people ;  his 
personal  and  official  character  has  made  him  the  opprobrium 
of  both  hemispheres,  and  brought  ineffable  disgrace  on  the 
American  name." 

A  member  just  opened  his  lips  to  say :  "I  am  in  favor 
of  the  official  death  of  Andrew  Johnson  without  debate. 
I  am  not  surprised  that  one  who  began  his  presidential 
career  in  drunkenness  should  end  it  in  crime. ' '  Indeed, 
the  longer  the  debate  lasted  the  more  manifest  it  became 
that  the  majority,  while  painting  the  President  as  the 
blackest  criminal  of  the  age,  were  proposing  to  impeach 
him  for  a  harmless  peccadillo. 

The  speakers  of  the  minority,  on  their  side,  stuck  the 
more  closely  to  the  actual  case  the  farther  the  majority 
flew  away  from  it.  The  two  specific  statutory  offences 
were  described  in  the  sixth  section  of  the  Tenure-of-office 
act  and,  with  an  eye  to  some  future  proceeding  such  as 
this,  declared  to  be  "high  misdemeanors"  punishable 
by  a  fine  of  $10,000  and  imprisonment  for  five  years. 
They  were:  (1)  "Every  removal,  appointment  or  em 
ployment  made  .  .  .  contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this 
act,"  and  (2)  "the  issue  of  any  letter  of  authority  for 
or  in  respect  to  any  such  appointment  or  employment. ' ' 
The  case  must  stand  or  fall,  therefore,  on  the  question 
whether  the  two  acts  of  the  President,  as  evidenced  by 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  365 

the  two  letters,  were  "contrary  to  the  provisions  of  the 
act."  Viewed  from  this  central  stand-point,  it  soon  be 
came  apparent  that  the  case  against  the  President  rested 
entirely  upon  an  error  in  the  construction  of  the  statute. 
The  arguments  by  which  this  error  was  demonstrated 
were  marshalled  in  full  force  by  the  Democratic  leaders 
in  this  extemporized  discussion;  but,  as  they  were  re 
peated  with  greater  elaboration  and  finish  on  a  grander 
stage,  we  need  not  review  them  with  any  particularity 
here.  One  or  two,  however,  it  may  be  desirable  to  dwell 
upon  for  a  moment  so  as  to  gather  a  clear  idea  of  the  gist 
of  the  matter  from  the  start.  Holman  of  Indiana,  then 
in  his  youth,  puzzled  the  impeachers  by  pointing  out  a 
state  of  affairs  they  could  not  very  well  controvert : 

"You  propose  to  impeach  the  President  upon  a  mere 
question  of  opinion,  when,  in  fact,  no  crime  or  misdemeanor 
has  been  committed,  nor,  indeed,  any  material  step  taken 
toward  the  commission  of  any  offence  under  any  interpre 
tation  of  the  law.  It  can  only  be  "said  that  the  President 
of  the  United  States  has  assigned  a  military  officer  to  a 
given  duty,  to  the  same  duty  to  which  he  recently  assigned 
the  General  of  the  Army,  and  that  officer  has  sought  to 
enter  upon  the  discharge  of  that  duty,  but  has  failed  to 
do  so,  and  the  incumbent  remains  in  his  office.  It  cannot 
be  said,  no  matter  what  interpretation  you  place  on  the 
Tenure  of  office  law,  that  an  offence  has  been  in  fact  com 
mitted;  for,  if  Edwin  M.  Stanton  was  Secretary  of  War 
he  is  still  Secretary  of  War;  he  is  still  in  fact  as  he  was 
in  possession  of  his  office;  for  the  Senate  has  declined  to 
confirm  a  successor." 


366    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

How  then  could  the  President  be  said  to  have  i  i  made 
a  removal"  at  all?  The  answer  was  made  that  there 
was  no  distinction  between  an  attempt  to  remove  and  an 
actual  removal.  "  It  is  a  removal  in  the  eye  of  the  law. ' ' 
"The  President  would  be  liable  to  impeachment  if  he 
should  attempt  to  violate  a  law  he  has  sworn  to  execute. ' ' 
But  the  sixth  section  does  not  mention  attempts,  deal 
ing  only  with  consummated  acts.  This  was,  in  fact, 
conceded  by  Lawrence :  * '  The  attempt  of  the  President 
to  remove  the  Secretary  of  War  is  not  an  indictable 
offence  under  the  Tenure-of-office  law.  ...  I  have  ex 
amined  the  act  of  Congress  critically,  and  no  lawyer  will 
controvert  what  I  say.  The  signing  of  a  letter  of  ap 
pointment  is  indictable  but  not  the  issuing  of  an  order 
of  removal. ' ' 

But  it  was  upon  their  main  contention,  viz :  Stanton 
was  not  protected  by  the  Tenure-of-office  act,  that  the 
opponents  of  Impeachment  won  their  most  conspicuous 
triumph.  The  argument  to  establish  this  conclusion  was 
stated  in  the  clearest  manner  by  George  C.  Woodward  of 
Pennsylvania— formerly  the  chief  justice  of  his  state— 
a  jurist  of  profound  learning,  a  terse  and  logical  speaker, 
and  a  Democrat  of  the  most  fearless  and  uncompromis 
ing  type.  He  said : 

"Mr.  Speaker,  this  is  the  third  attempt  to  impeach  the 
President.  The  first,  founded  on  his  alleged  usurpation  of 
powers  which  the  Constitution  had  delegated  to  the  legisla 
tive  department,  was  crushed  to  death  by  the  ponderous 
volume  of  testimony  of  more  than  twelve  hundred  pages 
which  was  brought  in  with  the  impeaching  resolution.  The 
second  attempt,  founded  on  the  Johnson-Grant  correspond- 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  367 

ence,  was  strangled  in  the  birth,  and  the  issue  of  fact  raised 
between  those  distinguished  correspondents  was  left  to  be 
decided  by  each  man  for  himself  upon  evidence  that  was 
altogether  favorable  to  the  President. 

"Now  comes  for  the  third  time  during  our.  present  ses 
sion,  another  resolution  of  impeachment,  founded  on  the 
President's  removal  of  E.  M.  Stanton  from  the  War  De 
partment  .  .  .  ;  this  resolution  is  founded  in  a  mistake,  and 
any  impeachment  of  the  President  on  the  idea  that  Secre 
tary  Stanton  is  within  the  protection  of  the  tenure  of  office 
bill  is  what  Fouche,  the  Chief  of  the  French  police,  would 
have  called  worse  than  a  crime— a  blunder.  .  .  . 

"It  is  the  removal  of  Mr.  Stanton  that  is  complained  of, 
but  the  removal  wrhich  the  sixth  section  condemns  is  every 
removal  'contrary  to  the  provisions  of  this  act.'  If  Mr. 
Stanton  is  not  within  the  act  then  the  removal  of  him  is 
not  contrary  to  it." 

Reading  the  first  section  he  continues : 

"Such  is  the  tenure  of  Cabinet  officers.  A  month  after 
the  expiration  of  the  term  of  the  President  by  whom  they 
were  appointed  their  tenure  expires,  and  they  become  ten 
ants  at  sufferance.  Until  that  time  they  are  removable  by 
advice  of  the  Senate ;  after  that  time  they  have  no  title  and 
their  possession  can  be  ousted  at  the  pleasure  of  the  Presi 
dent.  .  .  . 

"Thus,  then,  it  stands:  the  sixth  section  punishes  re 
movals  contrary  to  the  act;  but  Cabinet  ministers  can  only 
be  removed  contrary  to  the  act  by  the  President  who  ap 
pointed  them.  Mr.  Stanton  wras  appointed  by  President 
Lincoln,  and  his  title  to  office  expired  a  month  after  Lin 
coln's  death;  from  that  time  he  retained  his  portfolio  at 
the  pleasure  and  will  of  him  upon  wrhom  all  the  powers  and 
duties  of  the  office  had  devolved ;  he  was  a  mere  locum 
tenens;  and  when  Mr.  Johnson  removed  him  he  acted  within 


368    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  strictest  bounds  of  the  Constitution,  and  offended  not 
against  the  statute;  he  went  not  'contrary'  to  it,  and  so 
incurred  not  the  penalties  of  the  sixth  section." 

Mr.  Boutwell,  alone  of  the  speakers  of  the  majority, 
attempted  an  answer  by  claiming  that  the  Constitution 
having  defined  the  term  of  the  President  as  a  "  term  of 
four  years"  and,  in  case  of  death,  devolving  "not  the 
office,  not  the  term  but  the  powers  and  duties  of  the 
office"  upon  the  Vice  President;  "Johnson  himself  has 
no  term ' '  and  it  was  in  Lincoln 's  term  that  Stanton  was 
removed.  But  Woodward  exploded  this  verbal  fallacy 
by  anticipation : 

"It  was  Mr.  Lincoln's  power  and  duty  to  hold  his  office 
for  the  term  of  four  years,  and  at  his  death  this  power  and 
duty.,  as  far  as  they  were  unperformed,  devolved  upon  the 
Vice-President  by  the  very  words  of  the  Constitution.  The 
term  became  Mr.  Johnson's  term  for  its  unfinished  period, 
as  much  so  as  the  right  to  possession  of  the  White  House, 
the  right  to  the  salary,  or  to  any  of  the  perquisites  and 
functions  of  the  office.  It  would  be  as  unreasonable  to 
call  Mr.  Johnson's  possession  of  these  Mr.  Lincoln's  pos 
session,  or  Mr.  Johnson's  Administration  Mr.  Lincoln's 
Administration,  as  to  call  Mr.  Johnson's  term  of  office  Mr. 
Lincoln's  term.  Neither  in  popular  language  nor  in  con 
stitutional  phrase  can  such  a  misnomer  be  found.  It  would 
be  as  absurd  as  to  confound  their  names,  or  the  identity  of 
their  persons." 

James  F.  Wilson,  who  was  one  of  the  members  of  the 
conference  committee  when  the  Tenure-of-office  bill  was 
passed,  in  his  speech  in  this  debate  did  not  allude  to 
this  question,  and  Schenck  and  Williams,  the  other  mem- 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  369 

bers,  did  not  speak.  Bingliam  made  no  attempt  to  show 
by  the  act  itself  that  Stanton  was  within  it,  but,  referring 
to  the  suspension  of  that  officer  and  the  Senate's  action 
on  it,  declared  that  the  President  "recognized  that  act 
as  embracing  the  Secretary  of  War,"  submitted  that 
question  to  the  judgment  of  the  Senate,  and',  "by  its 
judgment  the  President  and  every  other  person  is  con 
cluded." 

But  the  majority  were  the  less  solicitous  to  maintain 
the  validity  Qf  their  case  under  the  Tenure  act,  because 
they  jumped  to  another  conclusion,  viz:  that  Stanton 's 
removal  in  the  circumstances  under  which  it  was  made 
was  without  authority,  independently  of  that  act.  From 
Stevens,  who  advanced  the  proposition  in  the  few  words 
he  spoke  when  presenting  the  report  of  his  committee, 
down  to  the  last  speech  in  the  debate,  every  speaker  on  the 
side  of  the  majority  assumed  as  a  matter  of  course  that, 
in  the  case  of  an  officer  whose  appointment  was  required 
to  be  made  "by  and  with  the  advice  and  consent  of  the 
Senate, ' '  his  removal  without  the  consent  of  the  Senate 
while  that  body  was  in  session  was  a  clear  violation  of 
the  Constitution.  "Nobody  ever  pretended  that  I  ever 
heard  of  that  the  President  during  the  session  of  the 
Senate  could  remove  an  officer,"  said  one  member.  "I 
hold  that  his  offence  is  complete,  even  if  there  had  been 
no  Tenure-of-office  law  in  existence,  for  under  the  Con 
stitution  the  President  has  no  authority  whatever,  while 
the  Senate  is  in  session,  to  remove  a  Cabinet  officer," 
said  another.  "It  has  never  been  contended  that  the 
Executive  had  the  power  of  removal  during  the  session 
of  the  Senate.  The  only  course  which  he  can  pursue  is 
24 


370    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

to  send  a  nomination  to  the  Senate,  which,  if  confirmed, 
displaces  the  person  in  office,"  said  another. 

But  this  second  assumption,  like  the  first,  was  founded 
in  error  and  a  lack  of  accurate  information.  As  Wood 
ward  stated  the  case : 

"An  idea  has  got  possession  of  gentlemen's  minds,  in 
spired,  no  doubt,  by  the  Tenure  of  office  law,  that  the  pecu 
liar  enormity  of  the  President's  act  consisted  in  removing 
Stanton  while  the  Senate  was  in  session.  The  Constitution 
does  not  forbid  him  to  do  so,  but  leaves  him  free  at  all  times 
to  rid  himself  of  an  unacceptable  Cabinet  minister.  It  is 
better  done  when  the  Senate  is  in  session  than  when  it  is 
in  recess,  because  the  new  nomination  can  be  immediately 
considered  without  prejudice  to  the  public  interests  from 
delay  of  a  confirmation ;  and  such  has  been  the  practice  of 
the  Government  from  its  foundation.  Indeed,  the  Senate 
is  always  in  session  when  a  new  Administration  comes  in 
and  substitutes  new  Cabinet  officers  for  the  old  ones." 

When  the  vote  came  to  be  taken  at  five  o  'clock  on  Mon 
day  afternoon  (the  twenty-fourth),  though  the  argu 
ments  of  their  adversaries  may  have  made  them  uneasy 
over  the  unforeseen  weakness  of  a  case  they  at  first 
thought  invulnerable,  there  was  no  break  in  the  serried 
ranks  of  the  majority  and  but  little  abatement  of  en 
thusiasm.  On  the  contrary,  some  injudicious  warnings 
of  a  menacing  character  uttered  by  the  Democrats  served 
but  to  heighten  their  ardour.  Brooks '  prediction,  that  the 
trial,  with  all  its  cumbrous  forms  and  ceremonial,  would 
necessarily  outlast  the  term  of  the  President,  only  stimu 
lated  them  to  further  haste ;  but  his  threat  of  resistance 
by  the  people  to  any  departure  from  constitutional 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  371 

methods,  such  as  suspension  during  trial,  was  greeted 
with  derisive  laughter.  Woodward  denied  their  "right 
to  impeach  anybody  and  the  present  Senate's  right  to 
try  any  impeachment." 

"Says  the  Constitution:  'The  House  of  Representatives 
shall  have  the  sole  power  of  impeachment,'  and  the  House 
of  Representatives  shall  be  composed  of  members  chosen 
every  second  year  by  the  people  of  the  several  States.  This 
House  of  Representatives  is  not  so  composed;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  the  representatives  chosen  from  ten  of  the  'several 
States'  have  been  and  are  excluded  from  these  Halls.  .  .  . 

"The  Constitution  says:  'The  Senate  shall  have  the  sole 
power  to  try  all  impeachments,'  and  that  the  Senate  shall 
be  composed  of  two  senators  from  each  State.  The  ten 
excluded  States  are  entitled  to  twenty  senators  upon  that 
floor,  and  until  they  are  admitted  and  incorporated  into 
that  body  I  deny  that  it  is  the  Senate  to  whom  the  Consti 
tution  commits  the  power  to  try  impeachments.  What 
criminal  was  ever  before  arraigned  before  a  court  from 
which  twenty  of  his  legal  triers  had  been  excluded?  .  .  . 

' '  The  flippant  reply  to  this  grave  question  is  that  we  pass 
laws,  and  therefore  we  are  a  House  and  Senate  to  impeach. 
But  the  answer  is,  your  legislative  powers  have  not  been 
questioned,  your  impeaching  powers  are ; ' ' 

but  when  he  ended  his  speech  with  the  following  menace 
he  only  concentrated  the  wrath  and  solidified  the  resolve 
of  the  majority : 

"Mr.  Speaker,  so  sure  am  I  that  the  American  people 
will  respect  this  objection  that  I  will  say,  if  I  were  the 
President's  counsellor,  which  I  am  not,  I  would  advise  him, 
if  you  prefer  articles  of  impeachment,  to  demur  both  to 
your  jurisdiction  and  that  of  the  Senate,  and  to  issue  a 


372    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

proclamation  giving  you  and  all  the  world  notice  that  while 
he  held  himself  impeachable  for  misdemeanors  in  office  be 
fore  the  constitutional  tribunal,  he  never  would  subject  the 
office  he  holds  in  trust  for  the  people  to  the  irregular,  un 
constitutional,  fragmentary  bodies  who  propose  to  strip  him 
of  it.  Such  a  proclamation,  with  the  Army  and  Navy  at 
hand  to  sustain  it,  would  meet  a  popular  response  that 
would  make  an  end  of  impeachment  and  impeachers." 

Stevens  closed  the  debate  in  a  short  and  sententious 
speech  which  is  characteristic  of  the  man  and  still  more 
of  the  debate  itself.  He  alludes  to  the  "high  misde 
meanor  ' '  of  the  statute  with  a  kind  of  contemptuous  in 
dulgence  and  then  dogmatically  affirms  that  ' l  an  indict 
able  offence  or  an  act  malum  in  se"  is  not  necessary  to 
sustain  impeachment.  "The  question  is  wholly  politi 
cal.  ' '  He  points  to  the  removal  of  Stanton  as  a  violation 
of  law,  but  he  makes  no  attempt  to  answer  the  argument 
that  Stanton  was  not  within  the  law.  He  treats  the 
offence  only  as  one  of  many  grosser  usurpations  and 
higher  crimes.  He  proposes  to  try  Andrew  Johnson  for 
"misprision  of  bribery"  in  offering  General  Grant,  if 
he  would  unite  with  him  in  his  lawless  violence,  "to 
assume  in  his  stead  the  penalties ' '  of  the  law.  Pie  pro 
poses  to  try  him  for  violation  of  his  official  oath — "a 
solemn  and  enduring  obligation";  adding  with  grim 
humour, i  l  nor  can  he  plead  exemption  from  it  on  account 
of  his  condition  at  the  time  it  was  administered  to  him. ' ' 
He  proposes  to  prove  his  (the  President's)  obstruction 
of  the  reconstruction  policy  of  Congress : 

1  'In  my  judgment  his  conduct  in  regard  to  that  transac 
tion  was  a  high-handed  usurpation  of  power  which  ought 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  373 

long  ago  to  have  brought  him  to  impeachment  and  trial 
and  to  have  removed  him  from  his  position  of  great  mis 
chief.  He  has  been  lucky  in  thus  far  escaping  through 
false  logic  and  false  law.  But  his  then  acts,  which  will 
on  the  trial  be  shown  to  be  atrocious,  are  open  evidence  of 
his  wicked  determination  to  subvert  the  laws  of  his 
country. ' ' 

His  last  words,  and  the  last  words  in  the  debate,  were : 

"As  we  deal  with  the  first  great  political  malefactor,  so 
will  be  the  result  of  our  efforts  to  perpetuate  the  happiness 
and  good  government  of  the  human  race.  .  .  .  This  is  not 
to  be  the  temporary  triumph  of  a  political  party,  but  is 
to  endure  in  its  consequence  until  this  whole  continent  shall 
be  filled  with  a  free  and  untrammeled  people  or  shall  be 
a  nest  of  shrinking,  cowardly  slaves." 

The  vote  was  then  taken;  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  in  the  affirmative— every  man  a  Republican; 
forty-seven  in  the  negative— every  Democrat  on  the 
roll  but  one  and  he  was  paired.  Of  the  sixteen  Re 
publicans  not  voting,  all  were  unavoidably  absent 
but  the  one  paired  with  the  Democrat;  one  had 
not  attended  the  House  on  account  of  illness  since  the 
session  began;  two  made  haste  to  apologize  for  their 
absence  and  announced  their  agreement  with  the  major 
ity  ;  nine  were  proclaimed  by  colleagues  to  be  in  favour 
of  the  resolution;  leaving  three  not  recorded,  one  of 
whom  voted  for  the  first  impeachment.  So  that  it  may 
be  stated  with  substantial  truth,  that  the  solid  represen 
tation  of  the  Republican  party  in  the  House,  without  a 
dissenting  or  deprecating  voice— the  Speaker  even  rush 
ing  forward  gratuitously  to  pillory  himself  in  the  gaze 
of  all  coming  generations— joined  in  a  deed,  of  which  at 


374    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  present  day  no  intelligent  human  being  acquainted 
with  the  facts— scarcely  even  one  of  the  surviving  par 
ticipants — will  utter  a  word  in  justification.  They  hated 
the  President  and  yearned  to  make  away  with  him  be 
cause  of  political  offences  for  which  they  tried  once  and 
again  and  failed  to  impeach  him.  They  seize  upon  a 
technical  infraction  of  an  unjust  statute — a  statute  they 
made  haste  to  repeal  as  soon  as  they  had  a  President  of 
their  own — as  a  pretext  to  drag  him  before  a  court  they 
believed  had  already  prejudged  his  case.  They  dis 
cover  on  the  threshold  that  he  is  not  and,  on  account  of 
a  blunder  of  their  own,  cannot  be  guilty  of  the  trivial 
offence  they  have  made  a  stalking-horse  for  their  revo 
lutionary  aim;  and  they  go  right  on  and  impeach  him 
nevertheless^ 

A  committee  of  two  (Stevens  and  Bingham)  having 
been  appointed  to  notify  the  Senate  of  the  action  of  the 
House,  and  a  committee  of  seven  to  prepare  articles  of 
impeachment,  the  House  adjourned/j^ 

On  this  same  Monday  the  nomination  of  Thomas 
Ewing  sr.,  for  Secretary  of  War,  in  the  place  of  Edwin 
M.  Stanton  removed,  reached  the  Senate  chamber  again, 
and  this  time  was  not,  as  on  Saturday,  hindered  by  an 
unlooked-for  adjournment.  It  was  accompanied  by  a 
message  from  the  President  in  the  nature  of  an  answer 
to,  or  a  protest  against,  the  Senate 's  resolution  of  Friday 
night.  The  senators  being  in  no  mood  to  -displace  Stan- 
ton,  the  nomination  was  shelved  as  a  matter  of  course. 
But  the  message  was  calculated  to  make  them  reflect.  In 

*  For  this  debate,  see  Cong.  Globe  of  the  dates  indicated.  For  vote, 
see  id,,  p.  1400;  committees,  p.  1402. 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  375 

it  the  President  dwelt  almost  exclusively  on  the  construc 
tion  of  the  proviso  of  the  Tenure-of-office  act  which  ex- 
cepted  from  that  law  those  members  of  his  Cabinet  who, 
like  Stanton,  were  not  appointed  by  himself.  He  stated 
that  his  opinion  of  its  unconstitutionally,  sent  to  the 
Senate  with  his  veto  of  the  bill,  remained  unchanged ;  but 
that,  the  bill  having  become  a  law  over  his  objections,  he 
had  striven  to  observe  it  in  every  particular ;  making  no 
removals  contrary  to  its  provisions  except  in  the  alleged 
instance  of  Stanton,  and  in  his  case  only  after  coming  to 
the  conclusion  that  he  was  not  within  the  letter  or  spirit 
of  the  statute.  "If  upon  such  a  question  I  have  fallen 
into  an  erroneous  construction,  I  submit  whether  it 
should  be  characterized  as  a  violation  of  official  duty  or 
law. ' '  "I  have  endeavored  to  proceed  with  the  greatest 
circumspection  and  have  acted  only  in  an  extreme  and 
exceptional  case,  carefully  following  the  course  that  I 
have  marked  out  for  myself  as  a  general  rule,  faithfully 
to  execute  all  laws  though  passed  over  my  objections  on 
the  score  of  constitutionality/'  The  stubbornness  of 
pose  and  fearlessness  of  nature  characteristic  of  the  man 
are  revealed  in  the  closing  paragraph : 

"In  the  present  instance  I  have  appealed  or  sought  to 
appeal  to  that  final  arbiter  fixed  by  the  Constitution  for 
the  determination  of  all  such  questions.  To  this  course  I 
have  been  impelled  by  the  solemn  obligations  which  rest 
upon  me  to  sustain  inviolate  the  powers  of  the  high  office 
committed  to  my  hands.  Whatever  be  the  consequences 
personal  to  myself,  I  could  not  allow  them  to  prevail  against 
a  public  duty  so  clear  to  my  own  mind  and  so  imperative. 
If  what  was  possible  had  been  certain,  if  I  had  been  fnlly 
advised  when  I  removed  Mr.  Stanton  that,  in  thus  defend- 


376    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ing  the  trust  committed  to  my  hands,  my  own  removal  was 
sure  to  follow,  I  could  not  have  hesitated,  actuated  by 
public  considerations  of  the  highest  character." 

The  next  morning,  the  House  committee  of  two  ap 
peared,  and  Stevens  "in  the  name  of  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives  and  of  all  the  people  of  the  United  States ' ' 
impeached  "Andrew  Johnson,  President  of  the  United 
States,  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  in  office," 
promised  to  exhibit  articles  in  due  time  and  demanded 
that  the  Senate  "take  order  for  the  appearance  of  the 
said  Andrew  Johnson  to  answer  said  impeachment." 
The  President  pro  tcmporc  responded  that  the  Senate 
would  take  order,  the  committee  withdrew  and  a  select 
committee  of  seven  wTas  appointed  by  the  Senate  to  con 
sider  and  report  upon  the  necessary  preliminaries. 

Meantime,  the  midnight  warrant  against  Thomas, 
after  having  failed  in  its  object  of  scaring  off  the  new 
secretary,  was  turning  into  something  very  like  a 
boomerang  in  the  hands  of  the  prosecution.  Thomas 
retained  Eichard  T.  Merrick  and  a  consultation  was  held 
by  him  with  the  President  as  to  how  the  arrest  of  his 
client  might  be  taken  advantage  of  to  get  the  case  into 
the  Supreme  Court.  The  President,  also,  employed 
Walter  S.  Cox,  another  Washington  lawyer,  to  institute 
proceedings  after  consultation  with  the  Attorney-Gen 
eral,  to  test  Thomas'  right  to  the  office  and  put  him  in 
possession.  These  two  counsel  attended  on  Wednesday 
(twenty-sixth),  the  day  to  which  the  criminal  proceed 
ing  had  been  adjourned  before  Judge  Cartter,  and  for 
mally  surrendered  the  defendant  to  the  custody  of  the 
marshal ;  at  the  same  time  presenting  to  the  judge  a  pe- 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  377 

tition  for  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus  on  behalf  of  the  pris 
oner.  The  counsel  for  Stanton  protested  vehemently 
that  the  defendant  was  not  in  custody,  that  he  could  not 
put  himself  in  custody,  that  they  did  not  want  him  in 
custody.  The  judge  echoed  their  protestations,  ruling 
that  the  defendant  was  not  in  custody,  could  not  put 
himself  in  custody,  that  the  judge  did  not  desire  to  put 
him  in  custody,  that  his  bare  word  was  sufficient.  The 
defendant 's  counsel  then  moved  his  discharge,  the  coun 
sel  for  the  complainant  made  no  objection,  the  judge  dis 
charged  the  culprit  witl*  as  much  alacrity  as  he  had 
signed  the  order  for  his  arrest,  and  that  was  the  last  of 
the  celebrated  case  of  Edwin  M.  Stanton  vs.  Lorenzo 
Thomas.* 

The  Senate  committee  on  Rules  and  the  House  com 
mittee  on  Articles  were  hard  at  work  during  the  week, 
and  the  former  succeeded  in  reporting  to  the  Senate,  on 
Friday,  twenty-five  i  i  rules  of  procedure  and  practice  in 
the  Senate  when  sitting  as  a  High  Court  of  Impeach 
ment  ' ' ;  but,  when  they  were  taken  up  for  discussion  the 
next  day,  grave  and  embarrassing  questions  immediately 
arose.  The  objection  that  the  Senate  sitting  as  a  senate 
could  not  adopt  rules  to  govern  the  Senate  sitting  as  a 
court  raised  the  question  whether  the  Senate  sitting  for 
the  trial  of  an  impeachment  was  a  court  or  not— a  ques 
tion  on  which  a  serious  division  of  opinion  existed 
among  the  majority.  Conkling  succeeded,  after  one 
defeat,  in  striking  out  the  word  "court77  which  the  com 
mittee  had  employed  in  the  draft,  and  in  substituting  for 

*  Testimony  of  Cox  and  Merrick.  Trial,  Vol.  1,  pp.  605,  607,  fx!7, 
618-G22. 


378   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  title  "High  Court  of  Impeachment"  the  title  "The 
Senate  sitting  for  trial  of  an  Impeachment";  leaving 
the  question  "  as  it  is  left  by  the  Constitution. ""  Calling 
this  a  court, "  as  he  said,  i  '  does  not  make  it  a  court ;  and 
failing  to  call  it  a  court  does  not  prevent  its  being  a 
court,  if  in  truth  it  is  so. ' '  The  debate  was  drawn  out  to 
an  unexpected  and  unwelcome  length,  going  over  until 
Monday  (March  2)  and  continuing  far  into  the  night 
before  the  rules  as  amended  were  finally  adopted. 

The  committee  of  the  House  had  a  much  harder  task. 
The  object  in  view  in  confining  the  charges  to  the  issuing 
the  order  of  removal  and  the  letter  of  authority  was  to 
dispense  with  the  necessity  of  sustaining  them  with 
other  than  documentary  evidence  and  thus  preclude  the 
possibility  of  an  insufferable  prolongation  of  the  trial. 
But  the  debate  on  the  resolution  of  impeachment  taught 
the  House  that  there  was  such  a  thing  as  making  the 
charges  too  narrow,  and  the  committee  on  the  articles, 
therefore,  felt  the  need,  in  the  first  place,  of  supporting 
the  two  letters  by  the  production  of  some  evidence,  at 
least,  that  there  had  ever  been  an  effort  to  put  them  in 
force;  in  the  words  of  Butler,  they  "wanted  to  clothe 
these  naked  bones  and  sinews  with  flesh  and  enliven  them 
with  blood."  Accordingly,  with  the  utmost  care  and 
caution  not  to  widen  the  door  for  oral  testimony  farther 
than  absolutely  necessary,  the  committee  on  Wednesday 
(February  26)  heard  the  testimony  of  Burleigh  and 
Wilkeson  relating  to  the  loose  threats  of  Thomas,  and  of 
Van  Horn,  one  of  the  members  of  Congress  who  gathered 
round  Stanton  when  Thomas  made  his  advance  upon  the 
War  Office.  They  also  heard  the  testimony  of  General 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  379 

Emory  relating  the  circumstances  of  his  interview  with 
the  President,  the  details  of  which  had  been  so  magnified 
by  rumour.  They  summoned  another  army  officer  (Col. 
Wallace)  who  had  a  brief  conversation  with  the  Presi 
dent  on  Sunday,  the  twenty-third,  of  the  same  tenor. 
And  they  summoned  Thomas,  just  escaped  from  the 
clutches  of  the  law  that  morning,  and  plied  him  with 
question  after  question  until  his  head  was  in  a  whirl. 
This  comprised  all  the  testimony  they  took.  A  letter  of 
the  President  notifying  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury 
of  the  change  in  the  War  Department  comprised  all 
the  additional  documentary  evidence.  They  then  turned 
to  the  formulation  of  articles,  their  chief  anxiety  being 
to  meet  every  phase  of  opinion  in  the  majority  of  the 
Senate;  and  on  Saturday  (twenty-ninth)  they  reported 
them  to  the  House. 

he  first  article  related  exclusively  to  the  "order  of 
'removal";— charging  it  as  an  attempt  to  remove  in  vio 
lation  of  the  Tenure  act  and,  also,  of  the  Constitution,  the 
Senate  being  in  session.  The  second  related  exclusively 
to  the  letter  of  authority  to  Thomas;  the  letter  being 
charged  as  constituting  a  regular  appointment  and  con 
trary  both  to  the  act  and  to  the  Constitution.  The  third 
differed  from  the  second  only  by  making  no  reference 
to  the  Tenure  act.  The  succeeding  five — called  "the 
Conspiracy  Articles"— charged  a  conspiracy  between 
the  President  and  ThomasI_Jj_bv^  intimidation  and 
threats^to^ prevent  Sitanton  from  holding  office,  in  vid- 
lation  of  the  Constitution  and  the  conspiracy  act  of  1861 
(fourth) ;  "by  force "  to  hinder  the  execution  of  the 
Tenure  act  by  preventing  Stanton  from  holding  office 


380    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

(fifth) ;  "by  force  to  seize "  the  property  of  the  United 
States  in  the  War  Department  contrary  to  the  act  of 
1861  and  with  intent  to  violate  the  Tenure  act  (sixth)  ; 
' t  to  prevent  and  hinder ' '  the  execution  of  the  Tenure  act 
by  preventing  Stanton  from  holding  office  (seventh) ; 
' '  to  seize ' '  the  property  of  the  War  Department  contrary 
to  the  Tenure  act  (eighth).  The  ninth  was  a  repetition 
of  the  second  and  third,  charged  with  the  additional  in 
tent  to  obtain  control  of  the  moneys  appropriated  for  the 
War  Department.  .The  tenth  and  last  was  founded  upon 
the  Emory  interview,  and  charged,  in  effect,  that  the 
expression  by  the  President  to  an  officer  of  the  army  of 
his  opinion  that  a  section  of  an  act  of  Congress  * '  depriv 
ing  him  of  his  powers  as  Commander-in-Chief  was  un 
constitutional"  was  a  "high  misdemeanor-!! 

From  the  time  of  Johnson 's  accession,  the  more  spite 
ful  of  his  adversaries  were  addicted  to  the  habit  of 
denying  he  was  President,  asserting  that  he  was  still 
Vice  President  and,  for  the  time  being  only  "Acting 
President. ' '  And  yet  by  the  articles  reported  he  was-im- 
peached  as  l  i  President  of  the  United  States. ' '  Mr.  Bout- 
well  affected  apprehension  that  the  Senate  might  decide 
that  Johnson  was  not  President  and  in  that  case  the 
whole  proceeding  would  have  to  be  gone  over  from  the 
beginning.  "A  different  court,"  he  said,  "must  be 
organized  for  the  trial  of  the  Vice-President  from  that 
authorized  by  the  Constitution  to  try  the  President." 
And  the  objection  gave  Bingham  the  opportunity  to 
trample  this  offspring  of  petty  malice  out  of  existence. 

"I  desire  to  say  that  I  was  not  aware  when  the  report 
was  read  there  was  a  member  of  that  committee  who  had 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  381 

the  slightest  doubt  that  Andrew  Johnson  was  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States.  I  desire  to  say  he  must  be 
impeached  if  he  be  impeached  at  all,  either  distinctively 
as  President  ...  or  as  Vice-President.  .  .  .  Again,  Andrew 
Johnson  is  estopped  by  record  in  five  hundred  instances 
from  denying  that  he  is  President  of  the  United  States. 
The  Senate  is  estopped;  the  House  of  Representatives  is 
estopped.  Your  Constitution  declares  that  no  bill  shall 
be  a  law  until  it  be  presented  to  the  President  for  his 
approval  or  disapproval.  If  he  be  not  President,  if  the 
people  have  no  President,  then  you  can  pass  no  law.  If 
he  be  President,  then  let  him  be  called  President  on  your 
records. ' ' 

From  the  very  nature  of  things,  his  enemies  were 
forced  to  place  the  crown  on  Johnson 's  head  before  they 
could  indulge  themselves  in  the  pleasure  of  taking  it  off. 

The  discussion  of  the  articles  was  for  the  most  part 
but  a  repetition  of  the  debate  on  the  resolution ;  but  the 
speech  of  Stevens,  in  which  he  exposed  the  duplicity  of 
the  whole  proceeding  in  his  most  satirical  vein,  cannot 
be  passed  over  without  notice.  *  *  Never, ' '  said  he,  ' '  was 
a  great  malefactor  so  gently  treated  as  Andrew  John 
son.  ' '  The  ' '  monstrous  usurpation,  worse  than  sedition 
and  little  short  of  treason,"  of  the  President,  "funda 
mental  offenses  much  more  worthy  of  punishment,  the 
committee  have  omitted  because  they  determined  to  deal 
gently  with  the  President."  Their  "tender  mercies 
have  rested  solely  on  the  most  trifling  crimes  and  mis 
demeanors  which  they  could  select  from  the  official  life 
of  Andrew  Johnson."  He  then  produced  an  article  of 
his  own  which,  he  stated,  he  had  offered  in  committee 
and  thought  it  had  been  put  in,  but  which,  he  sus- 


382    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

pected,  had  been  omitted  through  mistake.  "I  will 
therefore  read  it  and  call  it  one  and  a  half,  as,  in  my 
judgment,  it  is  the  gist  and  vital  portion  of  this  whole 
prosecution. ' '  Reciting  the  suspension  of  Stanton  and 
the  submission  by  the  President  of  his  reasons  to  the 
Senate,  the  article  charged  that,  while  the  Senate  was 
considering  their  sufficiency,  the  President  formed  a 
deliberate  design  to  prevent  Stanton  from  resuming  the 
office  if  the  Senate  should  decide  in  his  favour;  and, 
when  defeated  by  the  integrity  and  fidelity  of  the  Secre 
tary  ad  interim,  sought  to  arrive  at  the  same  end  by 
issuing  a  letter  of  authority  to  Thomas.  "If  there  be 
shrewd  lawyers,"  he  added,  "as  I  know  there  will  be, 
and  cavilling  judges,  and,  without  this  article,  they  do 
not  acquit  him,  they  are  greener  than  I  was  in  any  case 
I  ever  undertook  before  the  court  of  quarter  sessions. 
If  it  be  inserted  .  .  .  how,  then,  can  he  or  his  counsel 
hope  to  escape  even  if  there  were  no  other  charge — it 
is  worth  all  of  them  put  together— unless  it  be  upon 
what  I  know  they  will  rely  on,  the  unconstitutionality 
of  the  Tenure-of -office  act."  On  that  question,  he  re 
marked,  the  Senate  had  voted  four  times  in  favour  of 
the  law,  and,  ' '  Let  me  see, ' '  said  he,  ' l  the  recreant  who 
will  now  dare  tread  back  upon  his  steps  and  vote  upon 
the  other  side." 

On  Monday  at  three  o'clock  P.  M.  the  committee  re 
ported  a  revised  version  in  which  the  changes  were 
merely  verbal  or  unimportant,  with  the  exception  that 
the  seventh  was  dropped;  reducing  the  number  to  nine. 
Jenckes  of  Rhode  Island  having  prepared  a  voluminous 
article  now  moved  to  add  it  to  the  others.  It  charged 


THE  IMPEACHMENT  383 

the  issuing  of  the  letters  of  removal  and  authority  as 
the  outcome  of  a  premeditated  design  to  usurp  the  entire 
control  of  the  army,  unlimited  by  the  acts  of  Congress 
regulating  the  same,  and  by  means  of  the  army  to 
obstruct  the  execution  of  the  reconstruction  acts.  But, 
apprehensive  that  its  insertion  would  render  the  trial 
interminable,  the  House  voted  it  down  without  cere 
mony.  Butler  now  came  to  the  front.  From  the  begin 
ning  of  the  movement,  before  he  was  a  member  of  Con 
gress,  he  had  made  the  study  of  Impeachment  a  spe 
cialty.  He  considered  it  the  one  remedy  for  all  the  ills 
of  the  party  under  whose  banners  he  was  enlisted  for 
the  time  being.  Far  and  wTide  over  the  country,  in  the 
fall  of  1866,  he  advertised  its  curative  qualities,  address 
ing  meetings  in  various  states  and  even  a  legislature  or 
two ;  and  he  was  sent  to  the  fortieth  Congress  to  preside 
over  its  administration.  The  wreck  of  the  first  project 
on  what  he  regarded  as  a  miserable  technicality  of  law 
filled  up  the  measure  of  his  disgust;  and  he  was  pro 
foundly  dissatisfied  with  the  meagre  charges  now  made 
against  the  President  in  deference  to  a  doctrine  which  he 
denounced  as  "unsound  in  law,  fallacious  in  reasoning 
and  dangerous  in  principle. ' '  Being  suspected  of  oppo 
sition  to  the  nomination  of  Grant,  he  was  left  off  the 
committee  to  draft  the  articles.  But  he  was  a  man  who 
could  not  be  silenced.  The  speeches  of  the  President, 
at  Washington  and  on  his  tour  West,  in  1866,  seemed  to 
him  to  furnish  most  convenient  material  for  impeach 
ment  and  an  excellent  opportunity  to  expatiate  on  the 
atrocities  of  Andrew  Johnson.  Finding  a  precedent  in 
the  case  of  Justice  Samuel  Chase  where  the  charge  of 


384    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

making  an  intemperate  and  inflammatory  harangue  to 
a  grand  jury  obtained  the  greatest  number  of  votes,  he, 
too,  prepared  an  article  based  on  certain  violent  utter 
ances  of  the  President.  The  substance  of  the  charge  was 
that  Andrew  Johnson,  intending  Fo  bring  ridicule,  re 
proach  and  popular  odium  upon  the  Congress  and  the 
laws  passed  by  it,  made  certain  speeches  against  that 
august  body;  extracts  of  which  were  set  forth  in  three 
specifications;  the  first  taken  from  the  speech  of  the 
eighteenth  of  August,  1866,  at  the  Executive  Mansion  in 
reply  to  the  address  delivered  by  Reverdy  Johnson  when 
presenting  a  copy  of  the  proceedings  of  the  Philadelphia 
Convention,  the  most  notorious  sentence  of  which  was : 
' l  We  have  seen  hanging  on  the  verge  of  the  Government, 
as  it  were,  a  body  called,  or  which  assumes  to  be,  the 
Congress  of  the  United  States,  while  in  fact  it  is  a  Con 
gress  of  only  a  part  of  the  States'7;  the  second  taken 
from  the  Cleveland  speech  in  which  Congress  is  said  to 
be  "trying  to  break  up  the  Government";  the  third 
from  the  St.  Louis  speech  charging  "the  Radical  Con 
gress"  with  being  the  source  of  the  New  Orleans  riot 
and  containing  Johnson's  remarks  about  "Christ"  and 
his  "Judas."  This  article,  he  had  pressed  upon  the 
committee  in  vain.  Its  subject-matter  antedated  the 
defeat  of  the  first  impeachment  by  more  than  a  year,  and 
a  part  of  it  had  been  included  in  the  charges  then  made 
and  passed  adversely  upon  by  the  House.  Besides, 
there,  again,  was  the  danger  of  prolonging  the  trial. 
Butler,  not  at  all  discouraged  by  its  rejection  by  the  com 
mittee,  offered  it  to  the  full  House,  apologizing  for  the 
fact  that  not  a  particle  of  evidence  had  been  adduced  of 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  385 

the  charges  contained  in  it  by  saying  that ' '  the  language 
cited  was  taken  from  perfectly  reliable  documents,  and 
two  of  the  three  citations  were  proved  before  the  judi 
ciary  committee"  (i.  e.,  on  the  former  investigation), 
"and  there  can  be  no  doubt  the  speeches  were  de 
livered  ";  adding  that  he  had  "made  no  allegation  of 
the  truth  or  falsity  of  the  utterances  because  it  would 
not  have  been  consistent  with  the  dignity  of  the  House. ' ' 
On  the  statement  of  Wilson  that  "it  was  agreed  by  the 
committee  not  to  present  an  article  based  upon  the  sub 
ject-matter  involved  in  this  amendment, ' '  the  House  re 
jected  the  article  by  a  vote  by  tellers  of  48  yeas  to  74 
nays.  At  four  o'clock,  the  nine  articles,  as  agreed  to  in 
the  committee  of  the  whole,  were  reported  to  the  House 
and  adopted  seriatim.  The  election  of  seven  managers 
by  ballot  was  next  in  order.  The  members  selected  in 
the  caucus  of  the  Saturday  night  before  were  put  in 
nomination:  Stevens,  Butler,  Bingham,  Boutwell,  Wil 
son,  Williams  and  Logan.  Bingham  led  the  list  with 
114  votes  out  of  118  cast,  and  Stevens  was  at  the  foot 
with  105 ;  the  Democrats  taking  no  part  in  the  balloting. 
A  message  was  sent  to  the  Senate  communicating  the 
election  of  managers  and  the  order  that  they  exhibit  the 
articles;  and  the  House  adjourned.* 

The  next  day,  when  the  message  announcing  that  the 
Senate  was  ready  to  receive  the  managers  reached  the 
House,  it  found  them  in  no  condition  to  attend.  Butler 
was  engaged  in  pressing  again  upon  the  House  his  own 
article  which  the  managers,  in  the  meanwhile,  reversing 

*  For  debate  on  Rules  in  Senate  and  on  Articles  in  House  see  Globe 
of  dates  indicated. 

25 


386    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  course  of  action  of  the  committee,  had  authorized 
him  to  report.  To  dispel  the  fear  that  it  would  protract 
the  trial,  to  which  he  attributed  its  defeat  the  day  before, 
he  pointed  out  how  quickly  the  speeches  could  be  proved 
by  the  stenographers  who  took  them  down;  "and  be 
sides,"  he  said,  "the  managers  have  all  this  in  their 
hands  ..."  "If  we  find  the  article  would  cause  un 
profitable  delay"  we  can  withdraw  it  or  any  portion  of 
it.  He  quieted  Garfield,  who  expressed  his  anxiety  on 
this  point,  saying :  "  I  voted  in  the  negative  last  evening, 
not  because  I  was  opposed  to  it  but  from  fear  it  would 
increase  the  time"— with  the  information  that  "the 
reason  why  the  person  who  drew  the  article  drew  it  with 
three  specifications  .  .  .  was  that  the  managers  could 
withdraw  either  specification  ...  or  offer  proof  under 
either. ' '  Finally  Butler 's  article  was  adopted  by  a  vote 
of  but  87  yeas  to  40  nays,  and  it  became  article  X.  Bing- 
ham,  then,  by  the  unanimous  instruction  of  the  board  of 
managers,  reported  still  another.  Its  authorship  was 
attributed  to  Stevens  and  he  openly  fathered  it,  but  it 
differed  in  almost  every  feature  from  the  article  offered 
by  him  the  day  before  and  which  he  commended  to  the 
House  in  such  extraordinary  terms.  The  gravamen  of 
that  article  was  the  premeditated  design  of  the  President 
to  prevent  the  reinstatement  of  Stanton  after  the  Senate 
had- non-concurred  in  that  officer's  suspension,  as  shown 
by  the  Grant-Johnson  correspondence.  The  article  now 
reported  was  a  mosaic  of  fragments  of  those  already 
adopted,  of  the  Jenckes  article  rejected  and  of  the 
original  Stevens  article ;  and  the  object  of  its  concoction 
seems  to  have  been  to  catch  the  votes  of  doubtful  sena- 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  387 

tors.  Only  one  overt  act  was  charged,  viz :  an  attempt 
on  the  twenty-first  of  February  to  prevent  the  execution 
of  the  Tenure-of-office  act ;  but  this  one  act  was  buried 
under  such  a  mass  of  indirect  allegations  by  way  of  in 
ducement  to  commit  it  and  of  means  whereby  it  was  com 
mitted,  .that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  disinter  it.  I. 
The  declaration  of  the  President  in  his  speech  of  August 
18,  1866,  that  the  Thirty-ninth  Congress  was  only  a 
Congress  of  a  part  of  the  States  (taken  from  the  Butler 
article)  is  averred  to  be  a  denial  that  the  legislation  of 
that  r^rri-nc^  reog  Trdii/i  /if  negatory  upon  Andrew 
Johnson  except  so  far  as  he  saw  fit  to  approve  it,  and  a 
denial  of  the  power  of  that  Congress  to  propose  amend 
ments  to  the  Constitution  (a  new  averment) ;  and  then 
it  is  alleged  that  the  attempt  was  committed  in  pursuance 
of 'this  declaration.  II.  The  attempt  itself,  it  charges, 
was  committed  j(l)  by  devising  means  to  prevent  the 
reinstatement  of  Stanton  (this  is  from  the  original 
Stevens  article)  ;  (2)  by  devising  means  to  prevent  the 
execution  of  the  aroiy  appropriation  act  (this  is  taken 
from  the  Emory  article) ;  and,  also,  (3)  by  devising 
means  to  prevent  the  execution  of  the  reconstruction  act 
(this  is  taken  from  the  rejected  Jenckes  article).  So 
elaborate  a  structure  furnished  common  standing- 
ground  for  the  advocates  of  impeachment  on  account  of 
the  President's  course  since  the  commencement  of  his 
administration— the  movement  defeated  by  the  House; 
for  the  advocates  of  impeachment  founded  on  the  John 
son-Grant  quarrel— the  movement  stifled  in  committee; 
and  for  the  advocates  of  impeachment  on  account  of 
specific  offences  made  high  misdemeanours  by  the  sixth 


388    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

section  of  the  Tenure-of -office  act,— the  movement  now 
on  foot.  It  is  best  described  in  the  words  of  senator 
Buckalew : 

"As  an  article  on  which  to  convict,  its  strength  consists 
in  its  weakness— in  the  obscurity  of  its  charges  and  the 
intricacy  of  its  form.  .  .  . 

"Considered  in  parts  it  is  nothing— the  propositions  into 
which  it  is  divisible  cannot  stand  separately  as  charges  of 
criminal  conduct  or  intention ;  and  considered  as  a  whole 
it  eludes  the  understanding  and  baffles  conjecture.  .  .  . 

"The  matter  of  this  article,  so  far  as  substance  can  be 
detected  in  it,  is  drawn  mostly  from  the  other  articles;  but 
that  matter  is  arranged,  manipulated,  and  combined  to 
gether  in  a  manner  to  vex  the  student  and  confound  the 
judge;  and  the  new  particulars  of  charge  or  aggravation 
(whichever  they  may  be)  contained  in  the  article  are  hinted 
at  rather  than  expressed,  and  we  vainly  explore  the  con 
text  to  discover  distinctly  their  antecedents  or  the  conclu 
sions  to  which  they  lead. '  '* 

This  Omnibus  article,  as  it  was  fitly  called,  was  ac 
cepted  by  a  vote  of  108  yeas  to  32  nays,  and  numbered 
article  XI.  / 

The  list  being  complete,  the  next  thing  to  be  done  was 
to  present  the  articles  to  the  Senate.  On  Wednesday, 
the  fourth  day  of  March,  the  House  resolved  itself  into 
a  committee  of  the  whole  and  followed  the  managers  to 
the  Senate  chamber.  The  Senate  had  just  listened  to  the 
reading  of  an  opinion,  sent  in  by  the  Chief  Justice,  to 
the  effect  that  when  the  Senate  sits  for  the  trial  of  an 
impeachment  it  sits  as  a  court;  that,  therefore,  the 

*  Opinion,  Trial,  Vol.  3,  p.  228. 


THE   IMPEACHMENT  389 

organization  of  the  Senate  as  a  court  should  precede  the 
actual  announcement  of  the  impeachment  on  the  part  of 
the  House;  that  articles  should  only  be  presented  to  a 
court  of  impeachment;  and  that  rules  for  the  govern 
ment  of  such  a  court  should  be  framed  only  by  the  court 
itself.  This  opinion  from  so  high  an  authority,  the 
Senate  disregarded  entirely  by  proceeding  immediately 
to  listen  to  the  managers  read  the  articles  in  the  presence 
of  the  House,  the  Speaker  being  provided  with  a  seat  at 
the  right  of  the  President  pro  tern.  This  ceremony  over 
and  the  managers  with  their  retinue  gone,  the  Senate 
resolved  that  at  one  o'clock  the  next  afternoon  it  would 
proceed  with  the  Impeachment ;  notice  to  be  sent  to  the 
House  and  a  committee  of  three  to  wait  upon  the  Chief 
Justice  to  conduct  him  to  the  chair.  That  evening, 
Chase  held  a  reception  at  his  residence.  At  about  mid 
night  the  doors  are  thrown  open, '' '  the  President  of  the 
United  States ' '  is  announced,  and  Andrew  Johnson,  the 
Great  Impeached,  walks  in.  The.  ordinary  exchange  of 
courtesies  between  the  distinguished  host  and  his  dis 
tinguished  guest  takes  place,  and  the  incident  is  at  an 
end.  But  the  report  in  the  newspapers  next  morning 
sent  a  flurry  through  the  ranks  of  the  advocates  of  im 
peachment  and,  following  as  it  did  the  opinion  of  the 
Chief  Justice,  convinced  the  radicals  that  the  officer  to 
preside  at  the  trial  was  an  enemy  to  their  scheme.* 

The  next  day— Thursday,  the  fifth— the  Senate  cham 
ber  is  crowded  by  persons  curious  to  witness  the  meta 
morphosis  of  a  legislative  body  into  a  judicial  tribunal. 
When  the  fine  head  of  the  Chief  Justice  comes  into  view 

*  Washington  newspapers. 


390   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

as  he  advances  through  the  crowd  of  representatives 
flooding  the  back  spaces  and  outer  circles  of  desks,  the 
lion-like  countenance  of  Justice  Nelson  following,  the 
senators  all  rise.  Wade  vacates  the  chair,  and  the  Chief 
Justice,  taking  it,  announces  that  he  attends  for  the  pur 
pose  of  joining  the  senators  "in  forming  a  court  of  im 
peachment  for  the  trial  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States, ' '  and  is  ready  to  take  the  oath.  In  prescribing  a 
f orai  of  oath  for  its  own  members  the  Senate  had  ignored 
the  Chief  Justice  as  being  merely  a  presiding  officer  and 
as  such  not  required  to  be  sworn.  This  theory,  Justice 
Nelson  demolishes  by  administering  the  senators'  oath 
to  the  Chief  Justice  as  being  actually  a  member  of  the 
court;  the  senators  looking  on  in  silence.  The  roll  is 
then  called  alphabetically,  and  the  Chief  Justice  admin 
isters  the  oath  to  every  senator,  to  "do  impartial  justice 
according  to  the  Constitution  and  laws."  The  slow 
process  is  almost  over  when,  in  answer  to  the  name  of 
Benjamin  F.  Wade,  that  senator  comes  forward  to  be 
sworn.  Hendricks  protests  that,  in  accordance  with  the 
spirit  of  the  constitutional  provision  that  when  the  Pres 
ident  is  impeached  the  Vice  President  cannot  preside  at 
the  trial,  the  President  pro  tern.,  being  next  in  succession 
to  the  present  Chief  Magistrate,  has  no  right  to  become 
a  member  of  the  court.  Sherman  comes  to  the  defence 
of  his  colleague,  pleading  that  Wade  is  a  senator  of 
Ohio,  Ohio  is  entitled  to  two  votes  in  the  Senate,  of 
which  the  state  cannot  be  deprived;  Wade  is  not  Vice 
President  and,  therefore,  the  constitutional  inhibition 
does  not  apply,  and  it  is  for  him  to  say  how  far  his  in 
terest  in  the  event  of  the  trial  will  suffer  him  to  go. 


THE    IMPEACHMENT  391 

Howard  contends  that  there  is  no  right  of  challenge  in 
cases  of  impeachment  and  points  to  the  fact  that  the  son- 
in-law  of  the  accused  had  already  sworn  in.  Reverdy 
Johnson,  on  the  other  side,  recalls  the  Stockton  case, 
when  Simmer  championed  "the  honor  of  the  American 
Senate."  With  his  usual  audacity  in  dealing  with  the 
facts  of  history,  Sumner  denies  point-blank  that  the 
reason  why  the  Vice  President  was  incapacitated  from 
presiding  on  the  trial  of  the  President  was  the  one  as 
signed  by  Hendricks,  and  states  that  * '  the  reason  for  the 
introduction  of  the  clause"  (a  reason  heard  of  now  for 
the  first  time)  was  "because  the  framers  of  the  Consti 
tution  contemplated  the  possibility  of  the  suspension  of 
the  President  from  the  exercise  of  his  powers,  in  which 
event  the  Vice  President  could  not  be  in  the  chair  of  the 
Senate  because  he  would  be  in  the  President's  place." 
The  discussion  was  carried  over  to  the  next  day,  when  a 
senator  impatient  of  the  delay  invoked  the  twenty-third 
rule  as  adopted  by  the  Senate.  The  Chief  Justice  de 
cided  that  the  rule  did  not  yet  apply  as  the  Senate  was 
not  yet  organized  for  the  trial  of  an  impeachment— a 
decision  which  provoked  the  radicals  to  appeal  and  the 
chair  was  sustained  by  24  to  20— the  first  significant 
vote  in  the  proceeding.  Hendricks  finding  some  of  his 
political  associates  of  the  opinion  that  the  question 
under  debate  ought  more  properly  to  be  raised  when 
the  court  was  fully  organized,  withdrew  his  objection, 
and  "Bluff  Ben"  Wade,  with  unruffled  countenance, 
took  the  oath.* 

*  A  report  of  this  debate  is  given  at  end  of  Vol.  3  of  Trial. 


392    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

It  is  not  a  subject  of  regret  that  the  important  legal 
question  raised  at  this  time,  but  never  coming  up  again, 
was  left  undecided.  In  the  absence  of  an  express  inhibi 
tion,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  a  senator  does  not 
lose  his  constitutional  right  to  be  a  member  of  the  sen 
atorial  court  on  the  trial  of  the  President  by  being 
elected  to  the  chair  of  the  Senate  and  thus,  because  of  an 
act  of  Congress,  put  in  the  line  of  succession  to  the  chief 
magistracy.  But,  while  this  is  so,  there  can  be  no  doubt 
whatever  that  a  senator  occupying  that  invidious  posi 
tion  is  morally  disqualified  and  ought  at  least  to  forego 
his  privilege.  In  truth,  the  reason  for  the  exclusion  of 
the  President  pro  tempore  of  the  Senate,  when  ex  officio 
Vice  President,  is  much  stronger  than  the  reason  for  the 
exclusion  of  the  Vice  President.  The  Vice  President 
proper  can  vote  on  the  trial,  even  on  incidental  questions, 
only  in  case  of  a  tie,  can  in  no  event  vote  on  the  final 
judgment  because  it  takes  two-thirds  to  convict,  and, 
consequently,  cannot  contribute  to  his  own  elevation ; 
whereas  an  ex  officio  Vice  President,  like  Wade,  can 
vote  on  all  questions  arising  during  the  progress  of  the 
trial  and  his  one  vote  may  be  decisive  of  the  final  judg 
ment  ;  thus  literally  making  him  President  of  the  United 
States.  In  Wade's  case,  moreover,  the  impropriety  was 
particularly  glaring.  He  was  one  of  the  bitterest  ad 
versaries  of  the  President,  had  denounced  Andrew  John 
son  far  and  wide  over  the  country,  loading  the  name 
with  opprobrious  epithets  in  the  use  of  which  he  was  a 
master.  He  was  universally  known  as  an  outspoken 
advocate  of  the  deposition  of  the  President.  He  was 
the  only  senator  who  publicly  gloried  in  seizing  on  every 


THE    IMPEACHMENT  393 

advantage  sickness  or  death  might  give  him  in  the  strug 
gle  for  the  two-thirds  majority  in  the  Senate ;  he  was 
prominently  conspicuous  in  urging  the  admission  of 
undeveloped  territories  into  the  Union  for  the  purpose 
of  adding  to  the  number  of  judges  in  the  court  of  im 
peachment  favourable  beforehand  to  conviction ;  he  had 
been  lately  rejected  by  his  own  state  and  a  gentleman  of 
opposite  politics  selected  to  succeed  him;  there  was 
never  from  the  beginning  the  slightest  uncertainty  about 
his  vote  of  "guilty,"  and  his  partisans  were  even  now 
betting  that  in  ten,  twenty  or  at  most  thirty  days 
"honest  old  Ben  Wade"  would  be  in  the  White  House. 
It  was  fortunate,  therefore,  that  a  decision  of  the  naked 
legal  right,  which  must  have  been  one  of  affirmance,  was 
never  pronounced:— leaving  the  breach  of  the  most 
fundamental  canon  of  judicial  decency  to  stand  forth  in 
all  its  grossness,  unrelieved  by  cloak,  apology  or  miti 
gation. 

The  remaining  senators  present  having  taken  the 
oath,  the  Chief  Justice,  again  calling  attention  to  his 
disregarded  opinion  and  giving  the  senators  no  oppor 
tunity  for  reflection  or  interruption,  put  the  question 
whether  the  rules  adopted  on  the  second  of  March  should 
be  considered  the  rules  of  this  body.  The  senators  re 
sponded  orally  in  the  affirmative,  and  the  Chief  Justice 
scored  another  victory.  It  was  about  three  o  'clock  when 
the  managers  demanded  process  against  Andrew  John 
son.  The  Senate  ordered  that  a  summons  issue  return 
able  on  Friday,  the  thirteenth  of  March,  and  the 
' '  Court "  ( "  to  use  a  brief  expression, ' '  as  Howard  said) 
adjourned  to  that  day. 


394    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

During  the  week's  interval  not  much  legislative  busi 
ness  was  done.  It  was  thought  "incongruous  and  im 
proper  to  be  sending  bills  to  the  President  for  signature 
when  he  is  being  tried  for  high  crimes  and  misde 
meanors";  Sumner  being  exceedingly  sensitive  about 
holding  any  intercourse  whatever  with  a  President  i  i  ar 
raigned  at  our  bar  in  the  name  of  the  people  of  the 
United  States,"  even  protesting  against  the  Senate 
going  into  executive  session.  But  when  (on  the  ninth) 
the  credentials  of  George  Vickers,  elected  by  the  legisla 
ture  of  Maryland  to  fill ' ;  the  unexpired  term  of  the  Hon, 
Philip  F.  Thomas  who  was  refused  a  seat,"  were  pre 
sented,  the  senator  from  Massachusetts  challenged  the 
validity  of  the  election  on  the  ground  that  Maryland 
had  not  a  republican  form  of  government  and  moved  to 
refer  the  credentials ;  the  effect  of  which  action  would 
have  been  to  deprive  the  President  of  a  friendly  judge 
on  the  coming  trial.  The  motion,  however,  met  with 
little  favour  and  Vickers  was  sworn  in,  making  the  Sen 
ate,  as  at  present  constituted,  full. 

There  was  more  business  out  of  doors.  The  managers 
summoned  Thomas  before  them  and  for  a  second  time 
he  was  put  upon  the  rack.  Stanton  got  hold  of  a  witness 
for  them— one  George  Washington  Karsner  from  Dela 
ware—who,  on  Monday  evening,  the  ninth,  in  the  east 
room  of  the  President's  House,  whither  he  had  gone  full 
of  curiosity  to  see  the  distinguished  citizen  of  his  own 
state  now  standing  by  the  President  as  his  ad  interim 
Secretary  of  War,  succeeded  in  getting  eyes  on  his  hero 
whom  he  took  the  liberty  to  exhort  to  stand  firm,  telling 
him  that  "the  eyes  of  Delaware  were  upon  him,"  and 


THE    IMPEACHMENT  395 

eliciting  the  off-hand  reply :  "  In  two  or  three  days '  time 
I  will  kick  that  fellow  out."  Of  this  conversation,  the 
Delawarian  boasted  to  one  of  the  clerks  of  the  War  De 
partment  who  carried  him  before  his  intrenched  chief 
and  thence  he  was  sent  in  hot  haste  before  the  managers, 
and  this  bit  of  testimony  secured. 

On  Friday,  the  thirteenth  of  March,  the  Senate  cham 
ber  for  the  first  time  assumed  the  appearance  it  retained 
throughout  the  trial.  The  senators,  having  resolved  to 
retain  their  seats  and  not  transfer  themselves  to  a  plat 
form  put  up  for  the  purpose  on  each  side  of  the  chair, 
as  was  done  in  Judge  Humphrey's  case,  the  last  preced 
ing  trial,  confined  themselves  as  far  as  possible  to  the 
two  inner  rows  of  desks;  surrendering  the  outer  rows, 
as  well  as  the  surrounding  back  spaces  filled  with  chairs 
by  their  order,  to  the  members  of  the  House.  The  man 
agers  on  their  entrance  were  conducted  to  a  place 
assigned  them  on  the  left  of  the  chair.  The  sergeant-at- 
arms  in  a  loud  voice  called  Andrew  Johnson  thrice ;  but 
Andrew  Johnson  did  not  answer.  Instead  of  so  notable 
an  appearance,  manager  Butler  came  hurrying  in  and, 
as  the  crier's  voice  resounded  through  the  chamber, 
halted  in  mid-aisle,  seemingly  at  a  loss  to  conceive  why 
so  offensive  a  name  should  be  hurled  at  him  in  so 
obstreperous  a  manner.  The  merriment  excited  by  this 
incident  died  away  as  from  an  adjoining  room  there 
entered  the  President's  counsel— Henry  Stanbery  (just 
resigned  as  Attorney-General),  Benjamin  E.  Curtis  and 
Thomas  A.  R.  Nelson— who  were  conducted  to  a  posi 
tion  to  the  right  of  the  chair  corresponding  to  the  place 
assigned  to  the  managers  on  the  left.  The  House  of 


to, 


396    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Representatives  was  then  announced  and  the  members, 
headed  by  Elihu  B.  Washburne  chairman  of  the  com 
mittee  of  the  whole,  surged  into  the  chamber  and  spread 
themselves  over  the  space  assigned  them,  taxing  the 
utmost  capacity  of  the  floor. 

Thereupon,  Mr.  Stanbery  rose  and  read  a  communi 
cation  addressed  to  the  Chief  Justice  and  signed  Andrew 
Johnson,  notifying  the  appearance  of  the  President  by 
counsel  (in  addition  to  the  three  present  naming  Jere 
miah  S.  Black  and  William  M.  Evarts),  and  asking  for 
forty  days  to  prepare  an  answer.  He  also  read  a  state 
ment,  signed  by  all  five  counsel,  to  the  effect  that  the 
time  asked  for,  "with  the  utmost  diligence,"  was  no 
more  than  i  i  reasonable  and  necessary. ' '  The  managers 
were  prepared  for  some  such  application,  for  some  dila 
tory  movement,  but  for  no  such  "huge  cantle"  as  this. 
"Forty  days!"  Butler  exclaimed,  "as  long  as  it  took 
God  to  destroy  the  world  by  a  flood!"  Forty  days  to 
plead  not  guilty !  In  the  discussion  that  ensued,  it  was 
curious  to  hear  with  what  scrupulosity  the  managers  on 
their  side  addressed  the  presiding  officer  as  ' '  Mr.  Presi 
dent,"  and  the  counsel  for  the  President  on  their  side 
as  "Mr.  Chief  Justice."  Edmunds,  at  length,  moved 
an  order  that  the  respondent  file  his  answer  on  or  before 
the  first  day  of  April,  the  managers  their  replication 
within  three  days  thereafter,  and  the  trial  begin  on  the 
sixth ;  whereupon  the  Chief  Justice  and  the  senators 
retired  to  the  reception  room  for  consultation.  The 
audience  instantly  relaxes  its  attention,  the  buzz  of  con 
versation  rises,  members  go  in  and  out,  groups  gather 
on  the  floor,  and  comparative  disorder  reigns  in  the 


THE    IMPEACHMENT  397 

galleries.  After  a  tedious  interval  of  two  hours,  the 
court  returns;  there  is  an  instant  hush;  and  the  Chief 
Justice  announces  the  order  granting  the  President  ten, 
instead  of  forty,  days. 

This  matter  having  been  settled,  the  managers  moved 
that  upon  the  filing  of  the  replication  the  trial  proceed 
forthwith ;  and  their  motion  gave  rise  to  the  second  sig 
nificant  vote  of  the  senators.  Twenty-five  Republicans 
voted  for  the  motion  and  fifteen  voted  with  eleven 
opposition  senators  against  it ;  the  motion  being  lost  by 
one  vote.  The  struggle  over  the  fixing  of  a  day  certain 
for  the  trial  to  commence  resulted  in  the  indefinite  order 
that  it  proceed  immediately  after  the  replication  shall 
be  filed,  "unless  otherwise  ordered  for  cause  shown"; 
and  the  court  adjourned  until  Monday,  the  twenty-third, 
amid  the  angry  ejaculations  of  the  extremists:  "Another 
ten  days  thrown  away ! ' ' 

During  the  interval  the  President  lost  the  services  of 
the  most  eminent  of  his  counsel.  .  Black  was  the  leading 
lawyer  for  an  American  firm  who  claimed  the  small 
island  of  Alta  Vela,  lying  near  St.  Domingo,  (or  the 
guano  on  it),  by  the  right  of  discovery  and  occupation, 
but  whose  settlement  and  works  there  the  Dominican 
government  had  broken  up,  and  then  leased  the  island 
to  another  American  firm,  who  were  now  contesting  the 
validity  of  the  claim  of  the  former  before  the  executive 
of  the  United  States.  Black  urged  the  redress  of  his 
client's  grievance  by  the  summary  method  of  sending  a 
United  States  vessel  to  take  possession  of  the  island, 
arguing  the  case  before  the  Attorney-General  and  bring 
ing  his  personal  influence  as  a  political  friend  and 


398   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

adviser  to  bear  upon  the  President.  But  Seward  was 
strongly  averse  to  interference  by  the  government,  and, 
it  was  said,  his  opposition  alone  stood  in  the  way  of  the 
President 's  yielding  to  the  force  of  his  own  opinion  that 
the  original  occupiers  had  a  right  to  the  possession  of 
the  island.  Other  and. less  justifiable  methods  were  re 
sorted  to.  The  summons  of  the  Senate  in  the  impeach 
ment  proceeding  was  served  on  the  President  on  Satur 
day,  the  seventh  of  March,  and  Black  must  have  been 
already  retained  as  one  of  his  counsel.  On  Monday  (the 
ninth)  Col.  J.  W.  Shaffer,  one  of  the  junior  counsel  with 
Black  and  a  former  aid-de-camp  to  General  Butler,  went 
to  that  gentleman  in  the  House  of  Representatives  and 
secured  the  manager's  opinion,  in  the  shape  of  a  letter 
dated  that  day  and  addressed  to  Shaffer,  favourable  to 
the  validity  of  the  claim  of  his  clients,  and  stating  that 
the  writer  had  '  *  never  been  able  to  understand  why  the 
Executive  did  not  long  since  assert  the  rights  of  the 
Government  and  sustain  the  rightful  claims  of  its  citi 
zens  to  the  possession  of  the  island  in  the  most  forcible 
manner  consistent  with  the  dignity  and  honor  of  the 
Nation. "  This  letter  Shaffer  carried  around  to  man 
ager  Logan  who  wrote  under  its  signature,  ' '  I  concur  in 
the  opinion  above  expressed  by  General  Butler;  John 
A.  Logan ' ' :  and,  then,  to  representative  Garfield,  who 
wrote  underneath,  "and  I,  J.  A.  Garfield."  The  docu 
ment  was  given  by  Shaffer  to  Chauncey  F.  Black,  the 
son  of  Judge  Black,  and  another  counsel  in  the  case, 
who  sent  or  handed  it  to  the  President.  On  Friday, 
the  thirteenth,  the  elder  Black's  name  was  signed  to 
the  appearance  entered  by  the  President  before  the 


THE    IMPEACHMENT  399 

Court  of  Impeachment,  although  he  was  not  personally 
present.  On  the  following  morning,  the  younger  Black 
enclosed  to  the  President  a  copy  of  Butler's  letter  with 
the  addenda  of  Logan  and  Garfield  (the  original  of 
which  was  already  in  the  President's  hands)  to  which, 
had  been  added  in  the  meantime  another  concurrence 
signed  by  W.  H.  Koontz  (a  representative),  J.  K.  Moor- 
head  (one  of  the  Stanton  body-guard  on  the  twenty- 
second),  Thaddeus  Stevens  (manager),  J.  G.  Blaine, 
and  John  A.  Bingham  (chairman  of  the  board  of  man 
agers).  Here  were  four  out  of  the  seven  managers  of 
the  Impeachment  and  four  prominent  members  of  the 
impeaching  body,  one  of  them  a  prospective  witness  for 
the  prosecution,  backing  the  leading  counsel  retained  to 
defend  the  President  in  a  demand  upon  that  officer  to 
send  forthwith  an  armed  vessel  and  take  forcible  pos 
session  of  an  island  claimed  by  another  power  with 
which  the  United  States  were  at  peace,  for  the  benefit  of 
private  parties— the  clients  of  that  counsel.  As  might 
have  been  foreseen  by  any  one  who  knew  Andrew  John 
son,  such  covert  attempts  at  coercion  only  rendered  him 
the  more  immovable;  and  on  Thursday,  the  nineteenth, 
Judge  Black,  who,  it  is  but  justice  to  state,  knew  noth 
ing  of  the  maneuvre,  declined  to  appear  further  on  the 
trial  of  the  President.  As  he  said :  ' '  When  I  found  that 
Seward's  policy  was  stronger  than  legal  duty,  I  was 
done."  The  sudden  retirement  of  this  redoubtable 
champion,  the  circumstances  of  which  were  not  accu 
rately  known  at  the  time,  was  trumpeted  abroad  by  the 
detractors  of  the  President,  as  a  proof  not  only  of  the 


400  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

incorrigible  quarrelsomeness  of  his  nature,  but  also  of 
the  inherent  weakness  of  his  defence;  — since  so  great  a 
lawyer  refused  to  undertake  it.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
defection  was  denounced  by  the  friends  of  the  President 
as  the  outcome  of  a  plot  of  the  managers  to  rob  him  of 
the  services  of  the  most  invincible  of  his  defenders.  The 
absence  of  Judge  Black  from  the  trial  is  in  truth  to  be 
deplored.  His  participation  would  have  lent  a  pungency 
to  the  proceedings  adding  greatly  to  their  interest,  and  a 
speech  of  Jeremiah  S.  Black  in  defence  of  Andrew  John 
son  against  the  Republican  party  would  have  been  an 
ever-living  treat  to  students  of  the  pathology  of  party 
politics,  and  taken  rank  with  the  classic  invectives  of 
ancient  and  modern  times.  His  argument  before  the 
Electoral  Commission  in  1877  may  give  us  a  faint  idea 
of  what  we  have  lost.* 

When  the  "Court"  reassembled  on  Monday,  the 
twenty- third,  Black's  place  was  supplied  by  William  S. 
Groesbeck,  and  the  President 's  counsel  for  the  first  time 
appeared  in  full  force.  In  response  to  the  inquiry  of  the 
Chief  Justice,  Stanbery  arose  and  stated  that  they  were 
ready  to  read  and  file  the  answer.  This  pleading  was 
lengthy,  minute  and  elaborate ;  particularly  the  defence 
to  the  first  article  of  Impeachment,  which  was  read  by 
Mr.  Curtis  and  was  a  history  of  the  attempted  removal 
of  Stanton  given  from  the  stand-point  of  the  President 's 
position,  opinions  and  motives.  The  defences  to  the 
succeeding  articles  down  to  and  including  the  ninth, 

*  For  Alta  Vela  matter  see  Nelson's  Speech  on  Trial,  ut  infra,  and 
Debate  in  House,  Globe,  pp.  2337-2348. 


THE    IMPEACHMENT  401 

were  read  by  Mr.  Stanbery.  The  defences  to  the  tenth 
and  eleventh— the  Butler  and  Stevens  articles— were 
read  by  Mr.  Evarts.  The  reader,  having  become  ac 
quainted  with  the  main  outlines  of  the  President's  posi 
tion  during  the  progress  of  our  narrative,  can  dispense 
with  any  elaborate  analysis  of  the  formal  plea.  It  was 
called  "a  masterpiece  of  forensic  argument,"  and  its 
straightforward  explanation  of  the  President's  motives 
and  course  of  action  produced  a  favourable  impression 
throughout  the  country. 

The  managers  announcing  their  expectation  to  be  able 
to  file  their  formal  replication  by  one  o  'clock  to-morrow, 
Mr.  Evarts  applied  for  an  allowance  of  thirty  days 
thereafter  to  prepare  for  trial;  fortifying  the  applica 
tion  with  a  written  statement  of  the  necessity  for  that 
amount  of  time,  signed  by  himself  and  his  four  asso 
ciates.  The  prospect  of  still  further  delay  threw  the 
managers  into  another  fit  of  exasperation.  "Mr.  Pres 
ident"  and  "Mr.  Chief  Justice"  alternated  in  the  dis 
cussion  with  redoubled  pertinacity.  Manager  Bingham 
gave  the  Senate  the  first  specimen  of  the  kind  of  elo 
quence  for  which  he  was  famous.  Quoting  the  words  of 
the  answer  claiming  the  exclusive  power  of  removal,  he 
"ventured  to  say 

before  the  enlightened  bar  of  public  opinion  in  America, 
by  these  words  incorporated  in  his  answer,  the  President 
is  as  guilty  of  malfeasance  and  misdemeanor  in  office  as 
ever  man  was  guilty  of  malfeasance  or  misdemeanor  in 
office  since  nations  began  to  be  upon  the  earth.  What! 
That  he  will  suspend  all  executive  officers  of  this  Govern- 
26 


402  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ment  at  his  pleasure,  not  by  force  of  the  Tenure  of  office 
act,  to  which  he  himself  refers,  and  which  he  says  is  void 
and  of  no  effect,  but  by  force  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States;  and  that,  too,  he  adds,  while  the  Senate  of 
the  United  States  is  in  session!  What  does  he  mean  by 
it?  Let  the  Senate  answer,  when  they  come  to  vote  on 
this  proposition  for  an  extension  of  time.  .  .  . 

"If  it  be  the  judgment  of  the  Senate  that  he  has  power 
thus  to  lay  hands  upon  the  Constitution  of  the  country 
and  rend  it  in  tatters  in  the  presence  of  its  custodians,  the 
sooner  that  judgment  is  pronounced  the  better." 

Pending  a  motion  to  allow  ten  days,  the  court  ad 
journed.  The  following  day  (Tuesday,  the  twenty- 
fourth),  the  managers  being  prompt  to  the  moment  with 
their  replication,  Sumner  moved  as  an  amendment  that 
the  trial  proceed  from  day  to  day ;  and  the  court  retired 
for  consultation.  After  an  absence  of  two  hours,  the 
court  returned  and  announced  the  next  Monday  (the 
thirtieth)  as  the  day  fixed  upon  for  the  commencement 
of  the  trial;  to  which  date  the  court  adjourned.* 

The  veto  of  the  bill  cutting  off  the  right  of  appeal  to 
the  Supreme  Court  in  the  McCardle  case  (a  case  which 
involved  the  question  of  the  constitutionality  of  the  re 
construction  acts)  at  the  moment  it  was  about  to  be 
decided  by  that  court,  was  sent  to  the  Senate  the  next 
day ;  and  the  majority  in  both  Houses  spent  the  most  of 
the  week  imbedding  into  the  record  of  their  proceedings 
an  imperishable  testimonial  to  their  want  of  confidence 
in  the  validity  of  their  own  legislation  and  their  distrust 

*  For  Preliminaries  see  Trial,  Vol.  1,  pp.  11-80. 


THE    IMPEACHMENT  403 

of  another  of  the  three  coordinate  departments  of  the 
government,  by  enacting  this  iniquity  into  a  law.* 

*  The  history  of  this  piece  of  legislation  is  as  follows :  McCardle 
having  been  arrested  in  Mississippi  in  the  fall  of  1867,  obtained  a  writ 
of  habeas  corpus  from  the  U.  S.  Circuit  Court  directed  to  the  military 
commander  of  the  district,  who  made  return  that  the  prisoner  was  held 
under  the  reconstruction  act,  and  he  was  thereupon  remanded.  From 
this  order  McCardle  appealed  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States 
under  an  act  of  Congress  approved  February  5,  1867.  A  motion  was 
made  to  that  court  in  December  to  dismiss  the  appeal  for  lack  of  juris 
diction  under  that  act  and  after  argument  the  court  affirmed  its  juris 
diction  and  denied  the  motion.  (Ex  parte  McCardle,  6  Wall.  318.) 
The  appeal  was  argued  upon  the  merits  by  eminent  counsel  on  the 
second,  third,  fourth  and  ninth  of  March,  1868,  and  the  court  took 
the  case  under  advisement.  (Ex  parte  McCardle,  7  Wall.  507.)  On 
the  twelfth  Schenck  of  Ohio  asked  and  obtained  the  unanimous  consent 
of  the  House  to  take  up  a  bill  of  one  section  granting  appeals  in  revenue 
cases,  which  had  passed  the  Senate  the  day  before;  and  James  F.  Wilson, 
of  Iowa,  as  he  subsequently  avowed  on  the  floor  of  the  House  for  the 
purpose  of  cutting  off  the  right  of  appeal  in  the  McCardle  case,  moved 
as  an  amendment  an  additional  section  repealing  so  much  of  the  act 
of  February,  1867,  as  authorized  appeals  in  certain  cases  to  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  or  the  exercise  of  jurisdiction  by  that 
tribunal  on  appeals  "  which  have  been  or  may  hereafter  be  taken." 
The  amendment  was  adopted  sub  silent io  and  the  bill  was  sent  back  to 
the  Senate.  (Globe,  pp.  1859,  1860,  1881,  2059.)  Senator  Buckalew,  de- 
'ecting  the  trick,  strove  in  vain  to  obtain  either  explanation  or  postpone 
ment,  and  on  the  same  day  the  amendment  was  concurred  in.  (Id., 
1847.)  On  the  twenty-fifth  the  bill  was  vetoed  on  the  ground  that  the 
second  section,  so  surreptitiously  smuggled  on  it,  was  pointed  at  a 
particular  case  pending  in  the  Supreme  Court;  but,  although  in  the  dis 
cussion  that  followed  in  both  Houses  the  trick  was  thoroughly  exposed, 
the  bill  was  passed  over  the  objections  of  the  President.  The  court 
instantly  on  its  attention  being  called  to  the  act  stayed  its  decision 
until  argument  could  be  heard  on  the  effect  of  the  repealing  section;  and, 
in  December  following,  dismissed  the  appeal  on  the  ground  that  that 
section  deprived  the  court  of  its  jurisdiction.  (Ex  parte  McCardle,  7 
Wall.  507.)  See  Evarts'  allusion  to  the  mutilation,  in  his  argument, 
on  the  Trial,  Vol.  2,  p.  272. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE  TRIAL  OF  THE  PRESIDENT 

NEVER  before  in  the  history  of  the  world  did  forensic 
orator  face  a  higher  tribunal,  in  a  cause  between  parties 
more  exalted  and  before  a  more  splendid  audience,  than 
did  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  when,  on  the  thirtieth  day  of 
March,  1868,  he  rose  to  make  the  opening  argument  in 
the  trial  of  Andrew  Johnson.  Fifty-four  senators,  rep 
resenting  half  as  many  states,  presided  over  by  the 
Chief  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  Union,  con 
stituted  the  tribunal;  the  House  of  Representatives 
numbering  one  hundred  and  ninety  members  chosen  by 
thirty  million  constituents  was  the  accuser ;  the  accused 
was  the  elective  ruler  over  a  republic  of  continental 
dimensions  and  forty  millions  of  people;  and  the 
audience  seemed  an  epitome  of  the  beauty  of  the  women 
and  the  chivalry  of  the  men  of  the  country,  set  off  by 
the  pomp  of  ministers  from  foreign  courts.  Still, 
because  of  its  spectacular  grandeur,  the  theatricality 
of  the  whole  performance  was  all  the  more  instinc 
tively  felt.  In  those  rare  historic  trials  when 
mighty  peoples  called  their  rulers  to  account,  the 
issue  was  so  transcendent  as  to  dwarf  into  insignifi 
cance  the  paraphernalia  of  the  process.  When  Charles 
I  stood  before  the  High  Court  of  Justice,  when 
Louis  XVI  stood  before  the  French  Convention,  what 

(404) 


THE    TRIAL  405 

made  the  occasion  capital  was  not  the  dignity  of  the 
court  nor  the  confrontation  of  the  majesty  of  the  king 
with  the  majesty  of  the  people,  but  the  weightiness  of 
the  cause.  In  the  impeachment  of  Warren  Hastings, 
it  was  not  that  brilliant  assemblage,  painted  as  it  has 
been  upon  its  historic  back-ground  by  the  pen  of  Ma- 
caulay,  that  signalizes  the  trial  as  an  event  worthy  of 
the  notice  of  history,  but  the  enormity  of  the  charges 
against  the  defendant.  Precisely  the  reverse  were  the 
circumstances  of  the  present  trial.  UJere  was  the  High 
Court.  Here  were  the  exalted  parties.  Here  the  fit  \ 
audience.  But  there  was  no  casey  The  tribunal  of  Chief  HK 
Justice  and  senators,  the  representatives  accusing,  the 
President  defending,  the  amphitheatre  of  beauty  and 
chivalry  in  which  they  were  set;— without  some  supreme 
emergency  summoning  them  upon  the  stage,  what  were 
they  but  "forms,  modes,  shows "—  "actions  that  a  man 
might  play"!  The  ponderous  two-handed  engine  of 
impeachment,  designed  to  be  kept  in  cryptic  darkness 
until  some  crisis  of  the  nation's  life  cried  out  for  its 
interposition,  was  being  dragged  into  open  day  to  crush 
a  too  formidable  political  antagonist  a  few  months 
before  the  appointed  time  when  the  people  might  get  rid 
of  him  altogether.  The  nodus  was  lamentably  unworthy 
the  intervention  of  the  god.  And  this  sub-conscious  im 
pression  did  not  arise  from  any  widespread  misgiving 
as  to  the  result.  On  the  contrary,  the  prevalent  assump 
tion  that  the  judgment  of  the  court  was  a  foregone  con 
clusion,  if  it  did  not  originate,  contributed  materially  to 
strengthen  the  feeling  that  the  august  performance  was 
but  a  solemn  farce.  In  full  view  of  the  audience  sat  the 


406  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

fifty-four  senators,  every  senator  in  the  attitude  of  an 
impartial  judge;  yet  every  onlooker  was  conscious  that 
all  but  twelve  belonged  to  the  same  political  party  as 
the  onejmndred  and  twenty-six _  members  of  the  House 
who  voted  the  accused  guilty  of  high  crimes  and  misde 
meanours  ;  that  before  the  vote  was  cast  twenty-eight  of 
these  judges  had  already  passed  condemnation  upon 
the  overt  acts  of  the  President  which  formed  the  basis 
of  the  charge;  that  a  clear  majority  of  the  court  were 
party  partisans,  as  eager  to  contribute  their  vote  to  the 
removal  of  the  *  Incubus'  (as  they  did  not  scruple  to  style 
him)  as  the  hottest  fanatic  ever  was  to  add  his  fagot  to 

burning  pile  of  the  unbeliever. 
Another  conspicuous  circumstance  there  was  which 
enhanced  the  air  of  unreality  hovering  over  the  trial. 
This  was  the  absence  of  the  defendant.  The  presence  of 
Charles  I  and  Louis  XVI,  visibly  contending  for  their 
lives  before  their  judges,  adds  immeasurably  to  our 
impression  of  the  dead-earnestness  of  the  struggle  and 
the  tremendous  interests  at  stake;  and  the  iron  count 
enance  of  Hastings  softening  only  for  a  moment  be 
neath  the  unrivalled  eloquence  of  Burke,  the  imperturb 
ability  and  skill  with  which  he  lent  assistance  to  his 
counsel,  and  the  lofty  bearing  with  which  he  confronted 
his  judges,  are  the  features  which  convert  the  long  trial 
into  a  living  thing.  But  Andrew  Johnson  in  person 
never  entered  the  court  room,  never  stood  face  to  face 
with  his  accusers,  never  appeared  before  the  court  and 
the  audience  in  the  attitude  of  a  culprit.  The  House 
was  there;  the  Senate;  the  Chief  Justice;— all  visible  in 
the  flesh;  but  the  defendant  came  not.  His  place  was 


THE    TRIAL  407 

vacant.  The  Hamlet  of  the  play  was  missing.  And, 
from  this  point  of  view,  so  significant  a  gap  in  the 
programme  suggested  the  idea  that  Andrew  Johnson, 
having  despatched  his  five  counsel  to  play  their  part 
in  the  insubstantial  pageant,  had  returned  to  the  dis 
charge  of  the  multiplex  duties  of  his  exalted  office, 
contemptuously  indifferent  to  this  make-believe  game 
his  enemies  were  playing  with  ancestral  weapons  much 
too  big  for  their  case. 

To  crown  it  all,  the  irony  of  events  was  seen  playing 
round  the  hollow  spectacle.  Another  trial  had  been  set 
down  for  the  coming  month.  Another  President  of 
another  and  a  vanished  republic  was  under  prosecution. 
And,  in  his  case,  there  was  no  need  of  pageantry  to  swell 
the  proportions  of  the  charge.  Treason  of  no  construc 
tive  character  was  the  high  crime;  and  the  presence 
of  the  distinguished  defendant  was  certain  to  be  forth 
coming.  But,  as  it  was  shrewdly  said,  Jefferson  Davis 
could  hardly  be  tried  for  "  insisting  that  the  Southern 
States  were  out  of  the  Union  while  Andrew  Johnson 
was  being  tried  for  insisting  they  were  in. "  The  real 
trial  was  made  to  give  place,  therefore,  to  the  sham 
trial ;  Chief  Justice  Chase  protesting  with  much  reason 
ableness  that  he  could  not  act  in  both  at  the  same  time. 

So  that,  all  things  considered,  while  manager  Butler 
might  be  felicitated  on  the  glorious  theatre  in  which  he 
was  to  play  his  part,  the  part  assigned  him— to  raise  a 
cause  radically  inadequate  to  the  high  plane  of  the  im 
perial  process — rendered  him,  rather,  an  object  of  com 
miseration.  Moreover,  it  was  singularly  unfortunate 
that  his  own  presence  and  participation  served  but  to 


408  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

deepen  the  prevalent  impression.  Known  as  a  keen  and 
adroit  lawyer,  a  ready  and  witty  debater,  a  cunning  and 
most  versatile  politician,  his  reputation  for  sincerity 
was  not  high ;  and  his  recent  career  as  a  volunteer  war 
rior,  whether  deservedly  or  not,  carried  a  histrionic  air 
about  it  which  sometimes  suggested  the  comic.  That 
General  Butler  was  to  open  the  cause  of  all  the  people  of 
the  United  States  against  Andrew  Johnson,  the  Presi 
dent  thereof,  arraigned  for  high  crimes  against  the 
Union,  was  enough  of  itself  to  shake  the  gravity  of  the 
whole  procedure.  Nevertheless,  Butler  was,  in  truth, 
one  of  the  sincerest  among  the  leaders  of  the  Impeach 
ment.  He  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  representative 
of  its  coarsest  phase.  But  he  knew  exactly  what  he 
wanted  and  was  not  ashamed  to  own  it.  He  wanted 
Andrew  Johnson  turned  out  of  office  as  speedily  as  pos 
sible;  and  the  validity  of  the  pretext  concerned  him 
very  little.  Forms,  it  was  unfortunately  true,  must  be 
observed  in  order  to  capture  the  two-thirds  vote  of  the 
Senate.  But  the  two-thirds  vote  of  the  Senate  once  made 
sure  of,  forms  might  shift  for  themselves.  Andrew 
Johnson  once  out,  the  means  by  which  he  was  got  out 
would  never  return  to  plague  the  inventors. 

His  opening  argument  illustrated  the  foregoing  view 
of  the  trial  and  was  characteristic  of  the  man.  It  was 
carefully  prepared  and  read  from  manuscript.  There 
was  but  little  straining  after  oratorical  effect.  .  It  was  a 
lawyer's  plea  tainted  with  a  dash  of  the  demagogue.  No 
man  knew  better  than  Benjamin  F.  Butler  that  the  Pres 
ident,  in  the  two  formal  acts  laid  against  him,  had  com 
mitted  no  offence  deserving  to  be  classed  with  treason 


THE    TRIAL  409 

and  bribery.  It  was  imperative,  therefore,  to  concoct 
a  definition  of  impeachable  offences  comprehensive 
enough  to  embrace  any  act,  whether  violative  of  common 
law  or  statute  or  not,  and  no  matter  how  empty  of 
criminality,  which  a  majority  of  the  House  of  Repre 
sentatives  for  the  time  being  might  see  fit  to  brand  a 
"high  crime  against  the  nation."  With  the  help  of 
William  Lawrence  of  the  House,  who  compiled  for  him 
a  brief  of  all  the  precedents  and  authorities  on  the  sub 
ject  both  in  England  and  in  this  country,  he  was  able  to 
evolve  a  definition  which  it  was  judged  would  pass 
muster. 

"We  define,  therefore,  an  impeachable  crime  or  misde 
meanor  to  be  one  in  its  nature  or  consequences  subversive 
of  some  fundamental  or  essential  principle  of  government, 
cr  highly  prejudicial  to  the  public  interest,  and  this  may 
consist  of  a  violation  of  the  Constitution,  of  law,  of  an 
official  oath,  or  of  duty,  by  an  act  committed  or  omitted, 
cr,  without  violating  a  positive  law,  by  the  abuse  of  discre 
tionary  powers  from  improper,  motives,  or  for  any  im 
proper  purpose. ' ' 

After  defining  every  offence  as  impeachable  the  House 
chose  to  impeach,  the  manager  proceeds  to  divest  the 
proceeding  before  the  Senate  of  every  restraint  incident 
to  a  trial  by  reducing  it  to  a  simple  inquest  of  office,  and 
the  tribunal  before  him  of  every  attribute  of  a  court  by 
absolving  it  from  every  rule  of  law,  precedent  or  evi 
dence.  "As  a  constitutional  tribunal,  solely,"  he  told 
the  listening  Senate,  "you  are  bound  by  no  law,  either 
statute  or  common,  which  may  limit  your  constitutional 


410  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

prerogative.  .  .  .  You  are  a  law  unto  yourselves,  bound 
only  by  the  natural  principles  of  equity  and  justice,  and 
that  salus  populi  suprema  lex."  The  "determining 
quality, ' '  principally  dwelt  upon  by  Butler,  that  distin 
guished  the  tribunal  he  was  addressing  from  a  court, 
was  the  immunity  of  its  members  from  challenge  for 
bias;  but,  the  larger  number  of  English  precedents  he 
cited  being  the  ordinary  trials  of  peers  before  the 
tribunal  established  by  law  for  that  purpose— unmis 
takably  a  court  in  every  sense  of  that  term  and  in  fact 
so  designated  by  the  manager  himself— showed  on  the 
contrary  that  immunity  from  challenge  was  no  essential 
attribute  of  a  court  of  judicature. 

With  so  elastic  a  definition  of  the  character  of  the 
offence  to  be  proved ;  with  so  convenient  a  mode  of  pro 
cedure  to  prove  it;  with  so  absolute  a  tribunal  to  pro 
nounce  it  proved:— the  manager  might  well  advance 
with  confidence  to  the  exposition  of  the  articles.  There 
being  little  to  be  said  upon  the  first  eight  affirmatively, 
the  first  part  of  the  manager 's  argument  was  devoted  to 
demolishing  the  defences  interposed  to  them.  To  Butler 
as  to  Bingham,  the  claim  set  up  in  the  answer  that  the 
Constitution  vested  exclusively  in  the  President  the 
power  of  removal  from  office  seemed  a  greater  outrage 
than  any  offence  charged  in  the  articles.  Said  the 
counsel,  "the  momentous  question,  here  and  now,  is 
raised  whether  the  Presidential  office  itself  (if  it  bear 
the  prerogatives  and  power  claimed  for  it)  ought,  in 
fact,  to  exist  as  a  part  of  the  constitutional  government 
of  a  free  people."  "Whoever,  therefore,  votes  'not 
guilty7  on  these  articles  votes  to  enchain  our  free  in- 


THE    TRIAL  411 

stitutions,  and  to  prostrate  them  at  the  feet  of  any 
man  who,  being  President,  may  choose  to  control  them. ' ' 
Upon  that  part  of  the  President's  defence  which 
seems  to  us  the  most  conclusive,  to  wit:  that  Stanton 
was  not  within  the  act,  Butler 's  direct  attack  is  but 
a  repetition  of  the  play  upon  the_  word_!lterm"  prac 
ticed,  as  we  have  seen,  in  fee  House.  "Whose  presi 
dential  term  was  he  (Stanton)  holding  under  when 
the  bullet  of  Booth  became  the  proximate  cause  of 
this  trial,!  "—is  his  allusive  way  of  putting  the  case. 
"Whose  presidential  term  is  the  respondent  now  serv^- 
ing  out?  ffis  own  or  Mr.  Lincoln's,?  If  his  own,  he 
is  entitled  to  four  years  up  to  the  anniversary  of  the 
murder,  because"  each  presidential  term  is  four  years 
Tw jji ft  ffon pti brJTpn  * '  Again  he  argues:  "If  Mr.  Stan- 
ton  's  commission  was  vacated  in  any  way  by  the 
'tenure-of-office  act,'  then  it  must  have  ceased  one 
month  after  the  fourth  of  March,  1865"— or,  if  the  act 
"had  no  retroactive  effect,  then. his  commission  must 
have  ceased,  if  it  had  the  effect  to  vacate  his  commis 
sion  at  all,  on  the  passage  of  the  act,  to  wit,  March  2d, 
1867";  and  in  that  case  the  President  has  been  guilty 
of  a  high  misdemeanour  in  "employing"  him  "con 
trary  to  the  act."  His  passing  eulogium  on  Stanton 
for  holding  fast  to  the  place  "against  the  wishes  of 
his  chief"  was  eminently  Butlerian.  "The  respondent 
did  not  call  Mr.  Stanton  into  his  council.  The  blow 
of  the  assassin  did  call  the  respondent  to  preside  over 
a  cabinet  of  which  Mr.  Stanton  was  then  an  honored 
member  .  .  . ;  and  if  the  respondent  deserted  the  prin 
ciples  under  which  he  was  elected,  betrayed  his  trust, 


412  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

and  sought  to  return  rebels  .  .  .  again  to  power,  are 
not  those  reasons  why  Mr.  Stanton"— should,  in  a 
word,  ' stick'?  "To  desert  it  now  would  be  to  imitate 
the  treachery  of  his  accidental  Chief."  The  less  able 
to  meet  the  question  of  statutory  construction  in  front, 
the  more  strongly  did  the  manager  insist  that  the 
President  was  estopped  by  his  submission  of  the  rea 
sons  for  the  suspension  to  the  Senate.  And,  at  this 
point,  "the  shameless  avowal"  (as  he  calls  it)  in  the 
answer,  that  the  President  never  meant  to  be  bound 
by  the  decision  of  the  Senate  if  adverse  to  his  own 
views— a  mental  reservation  studiously  concealed  from 
the  Senate— aroused  Butler's  deepest  indignation. 
The  want  of  "open  and  frank  dealing,"  of  "a  manly 
straightforward  bearing,"  the  "keeping  back  his 
claims  of  power,"  "concealing  his  motives"  are  de 
clared  to  be  characteristic  of  the  culprit  as  self- 
revealed  in  his  answer ;  while,  at  the  next  moment,  they 
are  denounced  as  "the  subterfuge  and  evasion  and 
after-thought  which  a  criminal  brought  to  bay  makes 
to  escape  the  consequences  of  his  act. "  "  Senators !  He 
asked  you  for  time  in  which  to  make  his  answer.  You 
gave  him  ten  days,  and  this  is  the  answer  he  makes. 
If  he  could  do  this  in  ten  days,  what  should  we  have  had 
if  you  had  given  him  forty  ? ' ' 

Passing  to  the  letter  of  authority  to  Thomas,  Butler 
contended  that  the  act  of  February,  1795,  under  which 
the  President  claimed  to  have  acted,  did  not  apply  to  the 
case  of  a  "  vacancy  caused  by  removal, ' '  because  of  the 
presence  of  the  clause,  "whereby"  the  officer  "cannot 
perform  the  duties  of  his  office ' ' ;  although  that  clause 


THE    TRIAL  413 

was  a  stereotyped  form  of  words  used  in  all  similar 
statutes.  He  argued,  also,  that  the  act  of  1863  repealed 
so  much  of  the  act  of  1795  as  permitted  the  President 
to  select  any  person  to  perform  the  ad  interim  duties  of 
the  office,  and  restricted  his  choice  to  the  head  of  another 
executive  department: — although  the  act  of  1863  on  its 
face  provides  for  vacancies  in  cases  of  death,  resigna 
tion,  absence,  or  sickness,  only;  and  not  for  vacancies 
caused  by  removal  or  expiration  of  term.  The  way  he 
dealt  with  the  claim  that  a  President,  believing  a  law 
to  be  unconstitutional,  has  a  right  to  violate  it  to  bring 
the  matter  before  the  Supreme  Court  for  adjudication, 
is  much  more  effective.  He  takes  the  ground  that  the 
right  of  the  President  to  judge  of  the  unconstitution 
ally  of  an  act  of  Congress  is  exhausted  when  he  vetoes 
the  bill.  After  its  passage  over  his  veto,  "he  and  all 
other  officers  must  execute  the  law,  whether  in  fact  con 
stitutional  or  not."  To  do  otherwise,  "would  in  effect 
be  for  him  to  execute  his  veto  and  leave  the  law  unex 
ecuted.  ' '  He  may  do  it  "  at  his  peril ;  but  that  peril ' ' 
is  impeachment.  In  answer  to  the  question,  will  you 
condemn  the  President  for  a  crime  because  in  good 
faith  he  removed  Mr.  Stanton  for  the  purpose  of  testing 
the  validity  of  the  law— even  though  he  may  not  have 
had  the  right  to  do  so?  Butler  promises  to  show  that 
the  President  never  took  a  step  to  submit  the  question 
to  the  courts;  on  the  contrary,  that  he  complied  with 
the  law  in  every  particular,  causing  the  forms  of  com 
missions  of  officers  to  be  changed  so  as  to  conform  to 
the  act;  in  the  very  case  of  Stanton  he  acted  under  the 
law  and  never  instituted  proceedings  in  the  nature  of 


414  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

a  quo  warranto,  as  lie  alone  could  do,  to  try  Stanton's 
title.  Had  he  informed  the  Senate  on  the  twenty-first 
of  February  that  he  had  removed  the  Secretary  of  War 
for  so  innocent  a  purpose,  then  the  manager  acknowl 
edged  "the  representatives  of  the  people  might  never 
have  deemed  it  necessary  to  impeach  the  President. ' ' 

The  last  three  articles,  according  to  Butler,  raise  the 
inquiry  "whether  Andrew  Johnson  had  so  conducted 
himself  that  he  ought  longer  to  hold  any  constitutional 
office  whatever, "—a  question,  he  declares,  that  "sinks 
into  merited  insignificance  compared  with  the  grand 
eur"  of  the  question  raised  by  the  first  eight,  that  con 
cerns  the  very  existence  of  the  presidential  office  itself. 
Nevertheless,  it  is  in  the  exposition  of  one  of  these 
three  comparatively  "insignificant"  articles,  that  the 
manager  redeems  his  opening  argument  from  the  dull 
ness  associated  with  reading  of  a  dry  legal  disserta 
tion.  The  ninth  article  founded  on  the  Emory  inter 
view,  even  Butler's  ingenuity  could  not  make  much 
of;  he  himself  admitting  that  "if  the  transaction  set 
forth  .  .  .  stood  alone  .  .  .  doubts  might  arise  as  to 
the  sufficiency  of  the  proof."  And  article  eleven  he 
thought  it  unnecessary  to  discuss,  because,  if  the  other 
articles  fail  "so  large  a  part  of  the  intent  and  purpose 
with  which  the  respondent  is  charged  in  this  article 
would  fail  of  proof"  also,  while,  if  the  other  articles 
are  sustained,  "we  shall  take  judgment  upon  this  by 
confession."  But  the  tenth  article  was  his  own- 
originated  by  him  to  give  flesh  and  blood  to  the  dry 
bones  of  the  other  charges.  Upon  this  one  he  feels 
himself  at  liberty  to  expatiate  freely.  The  sleepy 


THE    TRIAL  415 

senators  and  weary  auditors  wake  up  when  he  begins 
to  read  parts  of  the  St.  Louis  speech.  In  a  carefully 
prepared  address  he  rings  the  changes  with  the  greatest 
gusto  on  the  offences  against  good  taste,  dignity  and 
propriety,  committed  by  Andrew  Johnson  in  an  ex 
tempore  speech,  delivered  at  night,  in  the  open  air,  to 
an  excited  and  disorderly  crowd,  some  persons  in  which 
were  present  designedly  to  provoke  the  President's 
well-known  pugnacity.  The  manager  achieved  a  cheap 
and  temporary  triumph.  It  is  probable  this  was  the 
only  part  of  his  task  he  thoroughly  enjoyed.  On  be 
half  of  the  American  people,  he  apologized  to  the  sneer 
ing  monarchists  of  the  old  world  for  having  such  a 
President  by  telling  them  "this  man"  "by  murder  most 
foul  succeeded  to  the  Presidency,  and  is  the  elect  of  an 
assassin  to  that  high  office,  and  not  of  the  people " ;  "we 
are  about  to  remove  him  from  the  office  he  has  dis 
graced  by  the  sure,  safe  and  constitutional  means  of 
impeachment"— "while  your  king,  Oh,  Monarchist! 
if  he  becomes  a  buffoon,  or  a  jester,  or  a  tyrant,  can 
only  be  displaced  through  revolution,  blood-shed,  and 
civil  war."  But  he  said  nothing  of  the  fact  that  these 
speeches  were  delivered  nearly  two  years  ago ;  that  the 
thirty-ninth  Congress,  whose  sovereign  dignity  they 
were  charged  to  have  assailed,  passed  out  of  existence 
without  embodying  its  resentment  in  any  act;  that  a 
committee  of  the  House  of  the  present  Congress  failed 
to  find  in  them  ground  of  impeachment,  and  that  the 
House  itself,  which,  at  the  last  moment  under  the  whip 
and  spur  of  Butler  himself,  consented  to  add  his  article, 


416  IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

a  month  or  two  before,  with  the  speeches  before  it, 
virtually  acquitted  the  President  on  the  same  accusation. 
His  peroration  is  open  to  the  same  criticism.  He 
closes  his  three  hours '  speech  by  replying  to  a  question 
he  might  well  imagine  "to  have  arisen  in  the  mind  of 
some  senator":— "Why  are  these  acts  of  the  President 
only  presented  by  the  House  when  history  informs  us 
that  others  equally  as  dangerous  to  the  liberties  of  the 
people,  if  not  more  so,  and  others  of  equal  usurpation 
of  power,  if  not  greater,  are  passed  by  in  silence?" 
The  answer,  lying  on  the  surface  of  things,  that  the 
House  of  Representatives,  in  December  last,  despite  his 
own  efforts,  decided  that  these  other  acts  of  which 
"history  informs  us,"  were  not  of  a  character  to  call 
for  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  impeachment:— he 
does  not  make.  The  answer  that  he  does  make  is  that 
the  acts  charged  are  but  "the  culmination  of  a  series  of 
wrongs,  malfeasance  and  usurpations ' '  which,  although 
the  House  once  condoned  them,  the  House  nevertheless 
means  upon  the  present  trial  to  spread  before  the 
Senate  to  characterize  the  "scope  and  design"  of  the 
acts  charged.  "For  the  evidence,"  he  says,  "we  rely 
upon  common  fame  and  current  history  as  sufficient 
proof. ' '  And,  in  two  long  paragraphs,  he  recapitulates 
the  real  cliarges  against  Andrew  Johnson,  on  which  the 
Republican  party  was  anxious  to  put  him  out  of  the 
way.  '  *  I  speak,  therefore,  not  the  language  of  exagger 
ation,"  was  Butler's  closing  sentence,  "but  the  words 
of  truth  and  soberness,  that  the  future  political  welfare 
and  liberties  of  all  men  hang  trembling  on  the  decision 
of  the  hour." 


THE    TRIAL  417 


It  fell  to  manager  Wilson  to  introduce  the  evidence 
on  the  part  of  the  House,  which  he  proceeded  to  do  in 
the  shape  of  documentary  proofs ;  and  the  first  day  of 
the  trial  terminated  in  the  middle  of  the  reading  of  the 
President's  message  submitting  his  reasons  for  Stan- 
ton's  suspension  to  the  Senate. 

The  next  day  the  oral  testimony  began.  Witnesses 
were  called  to  prove  the  service  on  the  President,  on 
Thomas  and  on  Stanton,  of  the  Senate's  resolutions  of 
non-concurrence  and  of  disapproval,  and  to  show  the 
change  in  the  forms  of  commissions  after  the  Tenure-of- 
office  bill  became  a  law ;  and,  then,  representatives  Van 
Horn  and  Moorhead  repeated  from  the  notes  they  were 
so  careful  to  make  what  took  place  on  the  twenty-second 
of  February,  prior  to  their  departure  to  the  House, 
between  Stanton  and  Thomas  at  the  War  Office.  Bur- 
leigh,  the  Dakota  delegate,  was  called  to  testify  to  the 
belligerent  sparks  he  managed  to  strike  out  of  Thomas.. 
Stanbery  objected.  The  Chief  Justice  thought  the  testi 
mony  competent,  whereupon,  his  right  to  decide  ques 
tions  of  evidence  in  the  first  instance  being  challenged 
by  Drake,  the  court,  after  hearing  long  arguments  by 
Butler  and  Bingham  adverse  to  the  right,  resolved  to 
retire  by  the  casting  vote  of  the  Chief  Justice,  and 
after  three  hours'  absence  returned  with  a  decision 
favourable  to  the  right.  This  consumed  the  day. 

Wednesday  was  ushered  in  by  a  motion  of  Sumner 
to  declare  the  casting  vote  given  by  the  Chief  Justice 
the  day  before  "without  authority  under  the  Constitu 
tion."  A  vote  was  taken  without  discussion  and  the 
roll-call  was  followed  with  intense  interest.  Twenty- 

27 


418  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

one  voted  in  the  affirmative  and  twenty-seven  in  the 
negative.  The  question  of  the  admissibility  of  Bur- 
leigh's  testimony  was  then  argued  at  length  by  counsel 
on  both  sides.  The  Chief  Justice  submitted  the  ques 
tion  to  the  Senate  and  the  testimony  was  admitted  by 
a  strict  party  vote.  This  decision  may  pass;  but  the 
next  seems  indefensible.  Thomas's  talk  to  his  clerks, 
just  after  he  was  restored  to  the  Adjutant-General's 
office,  concerning  the  relaxation  of  the  rules— words 
uttered  some  days  before  he  was  notified  of  his  new 
appointment— it  was  offered  to  prove ;  and,  after  the  in- 
competency  of  the  testimony  on  this  ground  was  clearly 
pointed  out  by  the  President's  counsel,  and  the  Chief 
Justice  pronounced  it  inadmissible,  the  Senate  let  it 
in  by  a  vote  of  28  to  22.  Wilkeson  then  testified  to 
Thomas's  threats,  and  Karsner  convulsed  the  audience 
with  laughter  by  his  version  of  the  scene  in  the  East 
Room  of  the  White  House,  when  he  told  Thomas  that 
"the  eyes  of  Delaware  were  upon  him." 

On  the  fourth  day,  after  representative  Ferry  read 
his  memorandum  of  the  encounter  in  the  War  Office, 
General  Emory  was  sworn;  and  his  testimony,  it  was 
universally  felt,  gave  a  death-blow  to  the  ninth  article, 
casting  the  first  cloud  over  the  superabounding  con 
fidence  of  the  impeachers.  The  letter  of  General  Grant 
requesting  the  President  to  put  into  writing  the  verbal 
order  to  disregard  the  orders  of  Stanton  unless  known 
to  emanate  from  the  President  himself,  and  the  Presi 
dent's  instructions  to  that  effect,  were  then  read;  and 
were  followed  by  the  reading  of  the  President's  final 

*  See  supra,  Chap.  V,  p.  394. 


THE    TRIAL  419 

letter  of  the  Johnson-Grant  correspondence.  The  coun 
sel  for  the  respondent  insisted  that  the  accompanying 
corroboratory  letters  of  the  Cabinet  ministers  should 
also  be  read  as  part  of  the  same  communication;  but 
the  court  decided  adversely  by  a  vote  of  29  to  20.  Col. 
Wallace's  testimony  as  to  his  casual  conversation  with 
the  President  on  the  night  of  the  twenty-second  in 
reference  to  the  movement  of  troops  about  Washington 
was  even  more  colourless  than  that  of  Emory ;  its  utter 
inadequacy  provoking  an  outburst  of  petulance  from 
Butler.  The  telegrams  interchanged  between  Parsons 
—the  first  provisional  governor  of  Alabama— and  the 
President  on  the  subject  of  the  ratification  of  the  four 
teenth  amendment  by  the  legislature  then  in  session, 
the  President  in  strong  language  dissuading  any  such 
action,  were  then  admitted  after  argument. 

Friday  and  Saturday— the  fifth  and  sixth  days— 
were  devoted  almost  exclusively  to  proving  the  Presi 
dent's  speeches;— at  the  Executive  Mansion  in  August, 
and  at  Cleveland  and  St.  Louis  in  September,  1866. 
There  was  a  tedious  dispute  over  the  accuracy  of  the 
reports,  and  several  versions  were  introduced.  The 
Chief  Justice  decided  one  inadmissible  on  the  ground 
that  the  reporter  used  the  notes  of  another  person  be 
side  his  own;  but  the  Senate  overruled  him.  The  re- 
publication  of  the  speeches  did  no  injury  to  the  Presi 
dent.  On  the  contrary,  it  may  be  said  that  the  manner 
in  which  they  were  again  brought  before  the  public 
caused  a  revulsion  of  sentiment.  It  was  no  longer 
Andrew  Johnson  exhibiting  himself  voluntarily  in  un 
dignified  positions ;  it  was  the  managers  with  premedi- 


420  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

tated  design  searching  out  again  these  verbal  indiscre 
tions  and,  after  the  President's  long  and  stately  silence, 
flaunting  them  before  the  eyes  of  the  country.  But 
what  more  than  anything  else  neutralized  the  effect  of 
their  reproduction  was  the  absence  of  even  the  slightest 
whisper,  either  of  accusation  or  of  proof,  of  a  scandal 
ous  charge  connected  with  them.  During  that  unfor 
tunate  tour,  it  was  widely  reported,  that  the  whole  party, 
including  the  President,  was  on  a  wild  spree,  and  that 
the  incoherencies  of  speech  and  the  breaches  of  good 
taste  disfiguring  the  addresses  were  the  consequences 
of  over-indulgence  in  drink.  Before  the  investigating 
committee  on  the  first  impeachment,  it  was  proved  that 
Johnson  was  not  under  the  influence  of  liquor  during 
this  tour ;  but  few  obtained  access  to  the  testimony  and 
it  was  little  known.  Now,  however,  the  absence  of  any 
such  allegation  from  Butler 's  article  and  from  his  open 
ing  speech  where  it  was  sure  to  appear  if  it  had  the  least 
foundation,  and  the  absence  of  any  attempt  to  prove  it 
on  the  trial — although  the  managers  had  examined  the 
witnesses  concerning  every  incident  of  the  tour— at 
once  opened  the  eyes  of  the  country  to  the  falsity  of 
these  reports  and  the  wrong  they  inflicted.  Many  per 
sons  had  been  chary  about  alluding  to  the  disagreeable 
subject  because  General  Grant  was  more  or  less  in 
volved  in  it;  but  from  the  time  of  the  Impeachment 
trial— there  was  no  more  serious  talk  among  well- 
informed  people  about  the  intemperate  habits  of 
Andrew  Johnson. 

On  Saturday  afternoon,  after  the  introduction  of  a 
schedule  of  removals  of  heads  of  departments  made 


THE    TRIAL  421 

while  the  Senate  was  in  session  from  the  foundation  of 
the  government,  containing  but  one  name— Timothy 
Pickering  removed  May  13,  1800 ;  and  a  schedule  of  ap 
pointments  of  heads  of  departments  during  the  session 
of  the  Senate,  containing  numerous  names;  and  the 
correspondence  between  President  Adams  and  his 
recalcitrant  Secretary  (which  seems  now  to  make  for 
the  defence) ;  the  managers  announced  the  close  of  their 
case.  Mr.  Curtis,  thereupon,  applied  for  an  adjourn 
ment  until  the  next  Thursday  (April  9)  so  as  to  give 
three  working  days  to  the  counsel  for  arranging  and 
preparing  the  testimony  for  the  defence;  and,  after 
considerable  opposition  in  which  Sumner  was  the  most 
aggressive,  the  request  was  granted. 

The  popular  impression  produced  by  the  first  week 
of  the  trial  was  that  the  presentation  of  the  proofs  had 
added  nothing  to  the  strength  of  the  case  against  the 
President.  The  alleged  conspiracy  between  the  Presi 
dent  and  his  newly-appointed  Secretary  ad  interim, 
the  threats  of  General  Thomas,  the  assault  upon  the 
War  Office  with  force  and  arms,  the  secret  preparations 
of  the  President  to  precipitate  an  armed  conflict  in  and 
around  Washington,  looked  much  more  formidable 
spread  out  in  the  phraseology  of  an  indictment  than 
after  the  words  of  living  witnesses  demonstrated  the 
openness  and  publicity  of  every  act  of  the  President,  the 
harmlessness  of  the  old  Adjutant-General,  the  inter 
change  of  peaceful  courtesies  between  the  two  con 
tenders  for  the  War  Office,  the  quiet  talk  of  the  President 
with  the  commander  of  the  city,  and  the  isolation  and 
powerlessness  of  the  Executive  in  the  face  of  a  hostile 


422  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

General  of  the  Army  and  triumphant  majorities  in  both 
Houses  of  Congress.  It  was  felt  that  the  Conspiracy 
articles— and  the  Emory  article— in  short,  every  arti 
cle  where  the  supporting  documents  needed  to  be  sup 
plemented  by  oral  testimony — were  much  damaged. 

There  was  a  reflow  of  the  throng  into  the  Senate 
chamber  on  the  day  of  the  opening  for  the  defence. 
The  tall  form  of  William  T.  Sherman,  clad  in  the  gor 
geous  uniform  of  the  Lieutenant-General,  was  noticed 
in  the  audience,  and,  close  by,  the  venerable  Thomas 
Ewing,  whose  nomination  as  Secretary  of  War  was 
still  lying  on  the  table  of  the  Senate  soon  to  be  with 
drawn  for  that  of  General  Schofield.  The  case  for  the 
prosecution  was  reopened  to  allow  the  examination  of 
two  witnesses  whose  testimony  was  of  no  importance; 
and  then  the  court  prepared  to  listen  to  the  counsel  for 
the  President. 

The  counsel  who  arose  to  make  the  opening  argument 
for  the  defence  presented  a  striking  contrast  to  the 
counsel  who  had  discharged  the  corresponding  duty 
for  the  prosecution.  Both  citizens  of  the  same  state, 
both  lawyers,  and  both  Benjamins— they  could  hardly 
have  been  more  different  men.  Butler— despite  his 
bald  head,  the  younger  by  just  nine  years — always  car 
ried  a  devil-may-care  air  about  him.  Curtis  was  the 
very  personification  of  judicial  dignity.  Butler  often 
times  dropped  into  loose  and  easy-going  attitudes,  ges 
tures  and  modes  of  statement.  Curtis  with  undeviating 
regularity  was  precision  itself.  In  their  common  pro 
fession  the  same  divergence  was  apparent.  Butler  was 
at  home  in  the  cut-and- thrust  combats  before  juries. 


THE    TRIAL  423 

Curtis  sought  the  retirement  of  the  counsel's  office,  the 
stately  contests  of  the  appellate  courts  and  the  repose 
of  the  bench.  Butler  looked  the  alert,  wily,  active 
politician  all  over,  wherever  he  was.  Curtis  looked 
like  a  statesman  of  the  Websterian  school,  unbend- 
able  to  the  tricks  of  party  warfare.  Butler  was  the 
free  lance,  riding,  unincumbered,  hither  and  thither, 
heedless  of  corselet  and  helm.  Curtis  was  the  man-at- 
arms,  cumbrous  with  defensive  weapons,  stately  in 
march,  slow  in  movement,  deadly  with  the  battle-axe, 
yet,  once  overthrown,  liable  to  be  suffocated  by  the 
ponderosity  of  his  armour.  It  was  curious  to  note  that 
Butler,  though  he  read  his  address  from  manuscript, 
conveyed  an  impression  of  extemporaneous  speech, 
while  Curtis,  though  he  spoke  like  an  advocate  at  the 
bar,  turned  out  his  sentences  as  though  they  were 
written. 

The  President  displayed  excellent  judgment  in  his 
choice  of  counsel ;  but  in  no  instance  so  much  as  in  the 
choice  of  Curtis.  As  one  of  the  two  dissenting  judges 
in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  Curtis  achieved  a  fame  which 
the  civil  war  had  almost  canonized.  His  opinion  in  that 
case  was  everywhere  quoted  as  one  of  the  classic  docu 
ments  of  the  struggle  with  slavery.  Just  after  this 
decision  he  voluntarily  retired  from  that  illustrious 
bench  where  Marshall  and  Story  and  Taney  were  con 
tent  to  spend  their  lives,  and  resumed  the  practice  of  his 
profession;  and  from  that  retirement  he  emerged  for 
the  first  time  at  the  summons  of  Andrew  Johnson.  The 
contrast  between  the  two  arguments  was  as  great  as  that 
between  the  two  men.  Butler's  was  a  laboured  effort 


424  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

to  hoist  the  case  made  for  him  up  to  the  level  of  the 
process ;  except  in  the  matter  of  his  own  article  where 
he  threw  off  his  harness  and  roamed  in  comparative 
freedom.  Curtis 's  was  a  steady,  gradual,  unrelenting 
pulverization  of  the  case  against  his  client;  except  in 
the  matter  of  the  Butler  article  which  he  demolished 
with  one  or  two  quick  strokes.  With  the  art  of  a 
skilful  advocate,  he  put  the  one  invulnerable  position 
of  the  defence  immediately  in  the  front.  Stanton  was  not 
within  the  act.  By  showing  this  to  be  the  case  he  took 
the  life  out  of  every  article  but  one.  And  he  showed  it, 
first,  by  the  words  of  the  law.  The  proviso  r£ads  that 
T"the  Secretaries"  (including  the  Secretary  of  War) 
"  shall  hold  their  offices  respectively  for  and  during  the 
term  of  the  President  by  whom  they  may  have  been 
appointed  and  one  month  thereafter."  Stanton  was 
appointed  during  the  first  term  of  President  Lincoln. 
Therefore,  the  words  "during  the  term  of  the  Presi 
dent"  do  not  apply  to  Stanton 's  case,  unless  the  ex 
pounder  of  the  law  had  the  right  to  add,  i  *  and  any  other 
term  or  terms  for  which  he  may  hereafter  be  elected," 
—which,  of  course,  nothing  short  of  legislative  power 
can  do.  Again:  was  Stanton  holding  during  the  term 
of  the  President  by  whom  he  was  appointed,  when  he 
was  removed?  The  counsel  used  but  few  words  to 
overthrow  the  position  of  the  managers  that  Johnson 
had  no  term,  but  was  merely  serving  out  Lincoln 's  term 
—by  knocking  away  the  sole  support  they  put  up  for  it : 
viz.,  that;  a  presidential  term  must  be  four  years  and 
no  less.  "The  limit  of  four  years  is  not  an  absolute 


THE    TRIAL  425 

limit.      Death  is  a  limit.      A  l conditional  limitation,' 
as  the  lawyers  call  it,  is  imposed  on  his  tenure  of  office. ' ' 

/• 
"When  the  President  dies,  his  term  of  four  years  for 

which  he  was  elected,  and  during  which  he  was  to  hold, 
provided  he  should  so  long  live,  terminates  and  the  office 
devolves  on  the  Vice  President.  For  what  period  of  time  ? 
For  the  remainder  of  the  term  for  which  the  Vice  Presi 
dent  was  elected." 

"The  term  assigned  to  Mr.  Lincoln  by  the  Constitution 
was  conditionally  assigned  to  him.  It  was  to  last  four 
years  if  not  sooner  ended:  but  if  sooner. ended  by  death, 
then  the  office  devolved  on  the  Vice  President,  and  the  term 
of  the  Vice  President  to  hold  the  office  began.'' 

N Second:  he  showed  it  by  pointing  out  the  reason 
why  the  exception  of  Cabinet  officers  was  inserted  in 
the  act.  They  were  made  by  the  Constitution  the  ad 
visers  of  the  President,  not  only  respecting  the  affairs 
of  their  respective  departments, .  but,  also,  according 
to  the  correct  grammatical  construction  of  the  pro 
vision  and  its  practical  interpretation  from  the  begin 
ning,  respecting  the  duties  of  the  entire  executive  de 
partment.  They  were  the  assistants  of  the  President  - 
to  speak  and  act  for  him,  and  he  was  responsible  for 
them.  Therefore  it  was,  that  the  legislature  refused 
to  fasten  these  confidential  servants  upon  the  Presi 
dent  who  had  not  made  them  his  choice^/  ^Third :  he 
showed  it  by  the  exposition  of  the  act  at  the  time  of  its 
passage :  bringing  Schenck,  in  the  House,  and  Sherman, 
in  the  Senate,  to  bear  witness  (Sherman  explicitly) 
that  the  proviso  was  not  intended  to  apply  to  the  case 


426  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

of  Slant  on.  Kecurring  to  article  first  the  counsel  points 
out  that  it  does  not  allege  a  removal  but  only  an  attempt 
to  remove,  an  offence  which  is  not  prohibited  by  the 
penal  section  of  the  act ;  moreover,  the  offence  must  not 
only  be  a  removal,  but  a  "removal  contrary  to  the  pro 
visions  of  the  act,"  and  the  counsel  clenches  this  branch 
of  his  argument  by  the  simple  remark  that,  if  Stanton 
was  not  within  the  act,  his  removal,  if  effected,  could 
not  have  been  contrary  thereto. 

But,  pursues  the  counsel,  the  President  is  charged  not 
merely  with  a  violation  of  the  act  but  with  an  inten 
tional  violation.  Now,  senators  may  have  different 
views  of  the  construction  of  this  act ;  but  all  must  admit 
there  is  a  fair  question  of  construction  i  i  whether  it  was 
applicable  to  Mr.  Stanton 's  case;  a  very  honest  and 
solid  question  which  any  man  could  entertain."  The 
President  was  bound  to  construe  the  law  when  the  case 
came  before  him.  He  did  construe  it ;  and  he  came  to 
the  conclusion,  not  merely  by  an  examination  of  the  law 
itself,  but  by  resorting  to  the  advice  which  the  Consti 
tution  enabled  him  to  call  for  to  assist  him  in  coming  to 
a  correct  conclusion.  ' '  Having  done  so,  are  the  Senate 
prepared  to  say  that  the  conclusion  must  have  been  a 
wilful  misconstruction?  .  .  .  How  is  it  possible  for  this 
body  to  convict  the  President  of  the  United  States  of  a 
high  misdemeanor  for  construing  a  law  as  those  who 
made  it  construed  it  at  the  time  when  it  was  made  ? ' ' 

Coming  to  the  charge  that,  independent  of  the  Tenure.- 
of-office  act,  the  order  of  removal  was  a  violation  of  the 
Constitution  because  issued  while  the  Senate  was  in 
session,  Mr.  Curtis  soon  clears  away  the  misapprehen- 


THE    TRIAL  427 

sion  which  seems  to  have  prevailed  on  this  point.  If 
Stan  ton  held  under  the  act  of  1789  and  under  the  terms 
of  his  commission,  he  was  removable  at  the  pleasure  of 
the  President.  There  is  no  restriction  as  to  the  time— 
whether  in  recess  or  in  session.  That  distinction  has 
reference  only  to  the  filling  of  vacancies,  not  to  the 
making  of  them.  The  first  Congress  came  to  the  con 
clusion  that  the  power  of  removal  was  vested  in  the 
President  independently  of  the  Senate.  That  decision 
may  be  proper  to  be  reversed  and  may  have  been 
reversed  by  the  thirty-ninth  Congress;  but— as  long  as 
it  remains— the  fact  that  the  Senate  is  in  session  has 
no  effect  on  the  exercise  of  the  power.  If  the  Senate  is 
not  in  session  and  the  President  makes  a  removal,  a 
vacancy  is  created  which  is  filled  by  a  commission  until 
the  end  of  the  next  session  of  the  Senate.  If  the  Senate 
is  in  session  and  the  President  makes  a  removal,  a 
vacancy  is  created  which  is  filled  by  a  nomination  to  the 
Senate.  With  the  act  of  removal  the  Senate  never  has 
anything  to  do. 

Here  the  counsel  might  have  stopped,  for  the  bottom 
was  out  of  the  main  part  of  the  case.  But,  as  he  said, 
1 1  there  is  a  broader  view  of  the  matter ' '  which,  although 
"not  essential  to  the  vindication  of  the  President  from 
this  charge,"  it  is  due  to  him,  should  he  be  brought 
before  the  court.  And,  then,  the  counsel  unfolds  his 
position  on  the  right  of  the  President  negatively  to 
decline  to  execute  or  affirmatively  to  violate  an  act  of 
Congress  which  he  believes  to  contravene  the  Constitu 
tion,  for  the  express  purpose  of  testing  the  case  before 
the  judiciary.  If  it  be  the  duty  of  every  citizen  to 


428  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

obey  every  law  passed  through  all  the  forms  of  legisla 
tion  without  question;— then  "there  never  could  be  a 
judicial  decision  that  a  law  is  unconstitutional,  inas 
much  as  it  is  only  by  disregarding  a  law  that  any  ques 
tion  can  be  raised  judicially  under  it."  It  is  uni 
versally  recognized  that  it  may  be  a  patriotic  duty  of  a 
citizen  to  raise  the  question,  as  for  example  in  the  case 
of  John  Hampden.  In  the  case  of  a  trustee  for  a  third 
person,  it  might  be  a  sacred  duty  to  raise  it.  Why  not 
then  in  the  case  of  the  Executive  who  is  the  trustee  for 
the  people?  The  counsel,  however,  is  very  careful  to 
restrict  this  right  within  the  narrowest  limits.  As  a 
general  proposition  the  President  is  bound  to  execute 
laws  without  reference  to  his  own  judgment  on  their 
constitutional  validity.  "He  is  not  to  erect  himself 
into  a  judicial  court. ' '  That  would  be  indeed  to  execute 
his  veto  and  prevent  a  judicial  decision.  As  long  as  a 
law  requires  nothing  of  him  but  "ministerial  action," 
or  affects  the  interests  of  third  persons  alone— it  is  his 
duty  to  execute  it.  But  when  ' '  a  particular  law  has  cut 
off  a  power  confided  to  him  by  the  people,  through  the 
Constitution,  and  he  alone  can  raise  the  question," 
and  "after  due  deliberation,  with  the  advice  of  those 
who  are  his  proper  advisers,  he  settles  down  firmly  upon 
the  opinion  that  such  is  the  character  of  the  law" 
it  cannot  be  "a  violation  of  his  duty  when  he  takes  the 
needful  steps  to  raise  that  question  and  have  it  peace 
fully  decided."  It  is  admitted  that  there  are  extreme 
cases  when  he  may  undoubtedly  invoke  the  aid  of  the 
courts ;  but  where  is  the  line  to  be  drawn  ?  When  the 
President  came  to'  consider  the  question  whether  the 


THE    TRIAL  429 

Tenure-of-office  act  was  unconstitutional,  he  found  that, 
if  Stanton  was  within  it,  it  took  away  from  him  a  power 
which  the  first  Congress  decided  the  Constitution 
vested  in  the  President  beyond  the  reach  of  Congress. 
And  this  contemporaneous  exposition  of  the  funda 
mental  law,  the  counsel  pointed  out,  met  every  one  of 
the  tests  laid  down  by  the  learned  commentators:  "In 
the  first  place  the  precise  question  was  under  discus 
sion  ;  secondly,  there  was  a  deep  sense  of  its  importance  ; 
next,  the  determination  was  thereby  to  fix  a  system  for 
the  future;  and  in  the  last  place  the  men  who  partici 
pated  in  the  work  must  be  admitted  to  have  been  ex 
ceedingly  well  qualified  for  their  work."  The  Presi 
dent,  also,  found  that  "from  1789  down  to  1867  every 
President  and  every  Congress  participated  in  and  acted 
under  the  construction  given  in  1789";  and  not  only  so, 
but  it  was  sufficiently  discussed  among  the  people  to 
bring  the  question  to  their  consideration,  yet  so  far  from 
expressing  any  disapprobation,  .all  parties  favoured 
and  acted  under  this  system.  In  the  debate  of  1789 
there  were  three  distinct  theories  held.  One,  that  the 
Constitution  lodged  the  power  of  removal  with  the 
President  alone;  another,  that  the  Constitution  lodged 
the  power  with  the  President  acting  witlr'the  Senate; 
a  third,  that  the  Constitution  lodged  it  nowhere  but 
left  it  to  the  legislative  power  to  regulate.  The  first 
two  received  by  far  the  greatest  attention;  the  third 
had  but  few  advocates  and  only  recently  has  come  into 
vogue.  Yet  the  Tenure-of-office  act  is'  founded  upon 
this  last  theory;  and  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that  the 
President  could  see  nothing  in  it.  The  President  had, 


430  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

also,  to  consider  the  consequences  if  Mr.  Stanton  were 
within  the  law.  As  the  counsel  ingeniously  argued, 
the  Constitution  undoubtedly  has  given  the  President 
alone  the  power  of  choice.  "In  the  first  place,  he  alone 
can  nominate.  When  the  Senate  has  advised  and  con 
sented  to  the  nomination,  he  is  not  bound  to  commission 
the  officer.  He  has  a  second  opportunity  for  considera 
tion.  ' '  As  Chief  Justice  Marshall,  in  Marbury  vs.  Madi 
son,  holds,  there  go  to  complete  an  appointment  three 
operations:  1.  The  nomination,  the  sole  act  of  the  Presi 
dent  arid  completely  voluntary.  2.  The  appointment  - 
also  the  act  of  the  President  and  also  voluntary— though 
it  can  only  be  performed  by  and  with  the  advice  and 
consent  of  the  Senate.  3.  The  commission.  It  is  not 
until  the  signature  of  the  President  is  placed  to  the 
commission  that  his  choice  is  finally  made.  Then 
"the  time  for  deliberation  is  passed.  He  has  decided. 
The  officer  is  appointed. ' ' 

If  this  be  an  accurate  view  of  the  law,  then,  if  Stanton 
is  within  the  Tenure-of -office  act,  his  is  a  "legislative 
appointment, ' '  his  is  "  a  legislative  commission. "  "  The 
President  has  had  no  voice  in  the  matter."  Nor  the 
Senate  as  the  adviser  of  the  President.  If  then  the 
President,  in  view  of  these  weighty  considerations  com 
ing  to  the  conclusion  that  the  Tenure  act  of  Congress, 
in  attempting  to  deprive  him  of  this  particular  power, 
in  this  unusually  delicate  case,  contravened  the  Consti 
tution  he  was  specially  sworn  i  i  to  preserve,  protect  and 
defend"; — is  he  to  be  impeached  for  holding  such 
opinion,  to  be  impeached  "for  acting  upon  it  to  the 
extent  of  obtaining  a  judicial  decision  whether  the  ex- 


THE    TRIAL  431 

ecutive  department  was  right  in  its  opinion  or  the 
legislative  department  was  right  in  its  opinion  ? ' '  And, 
here,  the  counsel  fastens  upon  the  acknowledgement 
of  Butler  that  if  the  President,  instead  of  the  message 
announcing  the  removal  to  the  Senate  (which  Butler 
stigmatized  as  "defiant"),  had  sent  a  message,  such 
as  he  outlined,  announcing  the  removal  only  for  the 
purpose  of  testing  the  law,  the  House  might  never 
have  impeached.  "Strangely  enough,"  exclaims  the 
counsel,  "the  honorable  manager  says:  'No,  he  is  not 
to  -be  impeached  for  that. '  So  that  it  seems  after  all 
that  it  is  not  the  removal  of  Stanton  but  the  manner  in 
which  the  President  communicated  the  fact  of  that 
removal  to  the  Senate  after  it  was  made. ' ' 

The  counsel  makes  short  work  of  the  doctrine  of 
estoppel,  sought  to  be^  applied  in  a  trial  for  crime  to 
a  "President  asserting  a  great  public  right  confided  to 
his  office  by  the  people"— the  people  who  "if  anybody 
is  estopped,  would  be  estopped  themselves."  First. 
There  was  nothing  inconsistent  in  the  President's  act 
ing,  as  far  as  possible  without  surrendering  his  right, 
on  the  line  of  a  law  he  considered  did  not  affect  Stanton, 
or,  if  it  did,  was  unconstitutional;  and,  second,  he  ex 
pressly  stated  the  two  questions  involved  under  the 
law  and  the  determination  of  himself  and  his  Cabinet 
(including  Stanton)  thereon,  in  his  message  to  the 
Senate.  Besides,  the  counsel  adds  as  he  closes  the 
first  day  of  his  masterly  argument: 

"The  law  may  be  a  constitutional  law;  it  may  not  only 
be  a  law  under  which  the  President  has  acted  in  this  in 
stance,  but  under  which  he  is  bound  to  act,  and  willing 


432    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

to  act,  if  you  please,  in  every  instance ;  still,  if  Stanton 
is  not  within  the  law,  the  case  remains  as  it  was  originally 
presented,  and  that  case  is,  that  not  being  within  the  law, 
the  first  article  is  entirely  without  foundation." 

In  truth,  this  was  the  pivot  of  the  entire  impeachment. 
Stanton  was  out  of  the  act — the  eleven  articles  fell  to 
pieces. 

The  following  day  the  counsel  attacked  the  second 
article,  showing,  first,  that,  whether  Stanton  was  remov 
able  at  the  pleasure  of  the  President  or  not,  the  issue 
of  the  letter  of  authority  to  Thomas  was  not  a  violation 
of  the  Tenure-of-office  act  which  prohibited  only  ap 
pointments  or  employments  to  offices  which,  by  reason 
of  nominations  not  being  sent  to  the  Senate  or  because 
of  rejections  of  nominations  actually  sent  in,  were  to 
remain  in  abeyance.  The  claim*  that,  even  if  Stanton 
was  not  within  the  act,  the  letter  of  authority  to  Thomas 
was  without  warrant  of  any  law  whatever,  he  answered 
by  quoting  the  act  of  1795  which  met  the  case  precisely, 
and  by  the  argument  that  the  act  of  1863,  not  being  re 
pugnant  and  dealing  partly  with  a  different  subject- 
matter,  did  not  repeal  the  older  statute.  l  i  But  whether 
it  did  or  not, ' '  asked  the  counsel,  "  is  it  not  a  fair  ques 
tion?  Is  it  a  crime  to  be  on  one  side  of  that  question 
and  not  on  the  other?  Is  it  a  high  misdemeanor  to  be 
lieve  that  a  certain  view  taken  of  the  repeal  of  this 
earlier  law  by  the  later  one  is  a  sound  view?"  So 
stringent  a  rule  even  the  honourable  managers  do  not 
contend  for;  "their  article  alleges  as  matter  of  fact  a 
wilful  intention  on  the  part  of  the  President  to  issue 
this  letter  to  General  Thomas  without  authority  of  law; 


THE    TRIAL  433 

not  on  mistaken  judgment,  not  on  an  opinion  which 
after  due  consideration  lawyers  might  differ  about; 
but  by  wilful  intention  to  act  without  authority— 
and  that,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  cannot  be  made 
out."  Nor  was  this  letter  a  violation  of  the  Constitution 
because  issued  when  the  Senate  was  in  session.  The 
Constitution  provides  "two  modes  of  filling  offices. 
The  one  is  by  temporary  commissions  during  the  recess 
of  the  Senate ;  the  other  is  by  appointment  by  and  with 
the  advice  and  consent  of  the  Senate.  But  cases  occur 
to  which  neither  of  these  modes  would  be  applicable, 
cases  of  absence,  sickness,  resignation  or  removal  when 
there  is  not  time  to  make  a  regular  appointment  or  issue 
a  commission."  And  Congress,  by  the  three  acts  of 
1792,  1795  and  1863,  endeavoured  to  supply  the  de 
ficiency.  They  provided  for  the  designation  of  a  per 
son  to  discharge  the  duties  of  the  vacant  office  tem 
porarily — ad  interim — until  the  regular  appointment  be 
made.  "It  is  entirely  evident  that  these  temporary 
vacancies  are  just  as  liable  to  occur  during  the  session 
of  the  Senate  as  during  the  recess. ' '  And  this  has  been 
the  practical  construction  ever  since  1792,  as  counsel 
showed  by  precedents— among  others  the  designation 
of  Postmaster-General  Holt  to  discharge  the  duties  of 
the  War  Department  ad  interim  on  the  hasty  resigna 
tion  of  Floyd,  the  Senate  being  in  session:  in  which 
case,  the  Senate  calling  for  the  authority  of  the  Presi 
dent,  the  President  sent  in  a  message  with  a  long 
list  of  similar  designations.  The  counsel,  in  this  con 
nection,  takes  up  the  eighth  article,  which  he  states  dif 
fers  from  the  second  only  in  the  particular  that  it 

28 


434   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

charges  an  attempt  to  control  the  moneys  in  the 
Treasury  appropriated*  for  military  service— on  which 
particular  there  had  been  no  proof. 

The  third  article,  he  said,  is  founded  on  the  erroneous 
supposition  that  the  authorization  of  Thomas  to  per 
form  the  duties  of  the  War  Department  was  an  ap 
pointment.  It  was  in  no  sense  an  appointment.  Even 
a  commission  issued  in  recess  is  not  an  appointment. 
The  office  is  not  filled.  The  President  never  had  any 
idea  of  appointing  Thomas  Secretary  of  War.  And, 
therefore,  he  did  not  apply  to  the  Senate  for  its  advice 
and  consent  in  the  case  of  Thomas  as  he  did,  in  fact, 
in  the  case  of  Ewing.  The  averment  that  there  was  no 
vacancy  at  the  time  is  simply  begging  the  question 
whether  Stanton  was  within  the  act  or  not.  If  he  was 
not,  there  was  a  vacancy  caused  by  the  removal  made 
at  the  same  time  with  the  issue  of  the  letter  of  authority. 
"It  is  impossible  for  the  honorable  managers  to  con 
struct  a  case  of  an  intention  on  the  part  of  the  President 
to  violate  the  Constitution  out  of  anything  he  did  in 
reference  to  the  appointment  of  General  Thomas,  pro 
vided  the  order  to  Mr.  Stanton  was  a  lawful  order  and 
Mr.  Stanton  was  bound  to  obey  it." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  follow  the  counsel  in  his  remarks 
on  the  so-called  Conspiracy  articles.  Incidentally,  he 
points  out  that  the  Conspiracy  act  of  1861  on  which  two 
of  them  (the  fourth  and  sixth)  are  founded  has  no  appli 
cation  to  the  District  of  Columbia;  and  the  other  two 
(fifth  and  seventh)  are  founded  on  no  law  at  all.  The 
ninth  article  the  counsel  says  is  not  only  unproved  but 
disproved  by  the  testimony. 


THE    TRIAL  435 

The  Butler  article  is  then  taken  up  and  most  cruelly 
handled.  The  counsel,  in  asking  what  are  impeachable 
offences  under  our  Constitution,  refuses  to  follow  the 
manager  back  "to  the  times  of  the  Plantagenets,  the 
Tudors  and  the  Stuarts"  in  search  of  precedents.  He 
confines  himself  to  the  Constitution  itself.  "Treason, 
bribery  and  other  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors, ' '  ac 
cording  to  Curtis,  mean  only  "high  criminal  offences 
against  the  United  States  made  so  by  some  law  of  the 
United  States. ' '  He  contends  that  by  the  Constitution 
this  tribunal  is  a  court,  this  is  a  trial  of  a  crime ;  there 
must  be  a  judgment  of  conviction  or  acquittal ;  and  there 
may  be  a  punishment  inflicted.  How  then  are  you 
"bound  by  no  law"?  If  that  be  so  what  becomes  of 
the  prohibitions  against  bills  of  attainder  and  ex  post 
facto  laws?  If  you  are  bound  by  no  law,  then,  by  this 
proceeding,  although  "as  Congress  you  cannot  create 
a  law  to  punish  these  acts  if  no  law  existed  at  the  time 
they  were  done,"  yet,  "while  the  case  is  on  trial,  you 
may  individually  each  one  of  you  create  a  law  by  him 
self  to  govern  the  case."  The  oath  which  the  Consti 
tution  provides  shall  be  taken  by  senators  on  the  trial 
of  an  impeachment  does  not  mean  that  they  will  observe 
the  Constitution  and  the  laws,  but  that  they  shall  follow 
their  own  individual  wills!  In  bills  of  attainder  "the 
Parliament  make  the  law  for  the  facts  they  find.  Each 
legislator  is  a  'law  unto  himself.'  .  .  .  According  to 
the  doctrine  now  advanced  bills  of  attainder  are  not 
prohibited  by  the  Constitution;  they  are  only  slightly 
modified.  It  is  only  necessary  for  the  House  by  a 
majority  to  vote  an  impeachment  and  .  .  .  two-thirds 


436    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

of  this  body  vote  in  favor  of  conviction,  and  there  is 
an  attainder:  and  it  is  done  by  the  same  process  and 
depends  on  identically  the  same  principles  as  a  bill  of 
attainder  in  the  English  Parliament.  The  individual 
wills  of  the  legislators,  instead  of  the  conscientious  dis 
charge  of  the  duty  of  the  judges,  settle  the  result," 

The  tenth  article,  the  counsel  pressed  on,  "depends 
upon  no  law. "  "So  far  as  regards  the  preceding  arti 
cles,  the  gist  of  the  charge  is  that  the  President  broke 
a  law.  You  must  find  that  the  law  existed,  you  must 
construe  and  apply  it  to  the  case;  you  must  find  his 
criminal  intent  wilfully  to  break  the  law,  before  the 
article  can  be  supported. ' '  But,  in  regard  to  the  tenth, 
you  need  not  be  troubled  with  any  law.  "The  com 
plaint  is  that  the  President  made  speeches  against  the 
Congress."  Really,  not  against  the  Congress  proper, 
because  "he  undoubtedly  did  not  mean  the  entire  con 
stitutional  body;  he  meant  the  dominant  majority  in 
Congress.  Everybody  so  understood  it,  everybody 
must  so  understand  it.  ...  Well,  who  are  the  grand 
jury  in  this  case?  One  of  the  parties  spoken  against. 
And  who  are  the  triers  ?  The  other  party  spoken 
against.  One  would  think  there  was  some  incongruity 
in  this ;  some  reason  for  giving  pause  before  taking  any 
very  great  stride  in  that  direction." 

"The  House  of  Representatives  has  erected  itself  into 
a  school  of  manners,  selecting  from  its  ranks  those  gentle 
men  whom  it  deems  most  proper  by  precept  and  example 
to  teach  decorum  of  speech;  and  they  desire  the  judgment 
of  this  body  whether  the  President  has  not  been  guilty  of 


THE    TRIAL  437 

indecorum,    whether   he   has   spoken   properly,   to   use   the 
phrase  of  the  honorable  manager. ' ' 

The  question  whether  the  speeches  are  true  or  false 
is  to  be  no  test,  it  seems.  For,  the  manager  who  opened 
the  case  proclaims  that  it  is  not  within  the  power  of 
any  man  to  slander  the  Congress  of  the  United  States. 
"That  is  a  pretty  lofty  claim."  The  Plantagenet 
Parliaments  did  not  venture  to  make  it  because,  under 
their  statutes,  their  "prelates,  dukes,  earls  and  barons" 
were  protected  only  "from  horrible  and  false  lies"; 
and,  under  our  own  odious  sedition  act  making  penal 
written  libels  against  Congress,  it  was  expressly  pro 
vided  that  the  truth  could  be  given  in  evidence  in  de 
fence.  "The  prohibition  of  the  Constitution  against 
any  legislation  by  Congress  in  restraint  of  the  freedom 
of  speech,"  as  the  counsel  showed  by  reading  some 
weighty  words  from  Madison, "is  necessarily  an  absolute 
prohibition ;  and  therefore  this  is  a  case  not  only  where 
there  is  no  law  made  prior  to  the  act  to  punish  the  act, 
but  a  case  where  Congress  is  expressly  prohibited  from 
making  any  law  to  operate  even  on  subsequent  acts." 
"What  is  the  law  to  be?  .  .  .  that  you  may  require  the 
speaker  to  speak  properly.  Who  are  to  be  the  judges 
whether  he  speaks  properly!  The  Senate?"  or  in 
effect  each  individual  senator?  And  "that  is  supposed 
to  be  the  freedom  of  speech  secured  by  this  absolute 
prohibition  of  the  Constitution!" 

With  a  brief  contemptuous  reference  to  the  eleventh 
article  as  a  mere  farrago  of  the  others:— "Here  are  the 
speeches,  we  will  have  something  about  them,"  here  is 


438  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

"the  old  matter  of  the  removal  of  Stanton,"  we  will  say 
something  on  that  and  so  on— the  counsel  ended  with  a 
sentence  which,  for  its  precise  characterization  of  the 
occasion,  deserves  quotation  alongside  the  rhetorical 
exaggeration  of  the  corresponding  sentence  of  Butler: 

' l  This ' '  trial ' '  is  and  will  be  the  most  conspicuous  instance 
which  has  ever  been  or  can  ever  be  expected  to  be  found  of 
American  justice  or  American  injustice,  of  that  justice 
which  Mr.  Burke  says  is  the  standing  policy  of  all  civil 
ized  states,  or  of  that  injustice  which  is  sure  to  be  discov 
ered  and  which  makes  even  the  wise  man  mad,  and  which, 
in  the  fixed  and  immutable  order  of  God's  providence,  is 
certain  to  return  to  plague  its  inventors." 

After  a  recess  of  a  few  minutes,  General  Thomas 
was  sworn  and  detailed  the  particulars  of  his  appoint 
ment  ad  interim,  of  his  interview  with  Stanton,  and  of 
his  interviews  with  the  President.  When  the  witness 
came  to  describe  the  scene  between  Stanton  and  him 
self,  which  occurred  after  the  body-guard  of  Congress 
men  had  departed  for  the  House  and  concerning  which 
there  had  been  no  testimony  before ;  when,  with  inimit 
able  simplicity,  he  told  of  the  caresses  the  great  War- 
Minister  lavished  upon  him,  of  the  interchange  of  jokes 
between  them,  of  the  bottle  from  which  the  assailed 
succoured  his  famished  assailant  and  drank  with  him 
the  "equal"  drink;  the  impression  that  hostilities  be 
tween  the  rival  claimants  threatened  a  small  civil  war 
evaporated  in  a  burst  of  laughter.  When  the  witness 
was  allowed,  over  the  objection  of  the  managers,  to  reply 
to  the  question  whether  the  President  at  any  time  au- 


THE    TRIAL  439 

thorized  or  directed  him  to  use  force  or  threats  to  get 
possession  of  the  War  Office  and  swore  that  the  Presi 
dent  did  not,  there  was  an  end,  as  it  seemed  to  the 
audience,  of  the  conspiracy  articles.  Butler's  cross- 
examination  of  the  guileless  veteran  was  not  a  pleasing 
exhibition.  The  lynx-like  attorney  displayed  his  skill 
in  bemuddling  an  honest  but  mentally  confused  wit 
ness,  but  the  substance  of  his  testimony  (except  in  the 
confounding  of  the  incidents  of  the  two  interviews  of 
the  twenty-first  and  twenty-second— which  he  was  re 
called  to  clear  up)  remained  unshaken,  and,  though 
visibly  under  torture,  he  maintained  a  soldierly  bear 
ing  and  impressed  all  who  heard  him  that,  although 
unequal  to  cope  with  the  wiles  of  the  lawyer,  he  meant 
to  be  truthful  in  speech  and  was  right  at  heart. 

On  Saturday  (eleventh)  a  veteran  of  another  sort 
took  the  witness-stand ;  one  whom  Butler  would  be  much 
more  chary  how  he  handled.  Lieutenant-General  Sher 
man  testified  to  the  interviews  he  had  with  the  President 
concerning  the  case  of  Stanton  after  the  latter 's  rein 
statement.  But  when  he  was  asked  what  conversation 
took  place  between  them  on  the  first  of  them  (January 
15),  strenuous  objection  was  made  by  the  managers 
and  a  long  argument  ensued,  during  which  manager 
Wilson  made  the  pregnant  suggestion  that,  should 
such  testimony  be  admitted,  then,  by  introducing  "con 
versations  between  the  President,  his  Cabinet  and  Gen 
eral  Grant,"  the  defendant's  counsel  might  precipitate 
upon  the  Senate  "a  question  of  veracity  between  the 
General  of  the  Army  and  the  President  of  the  United 
States"— "in  order  that  the  preponderance  of  testi- 


440  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

mony  (considered  numerically  at  least)  may  weigh  down 
the  General  of  the  Army."  The  Senate,  overruling 
the  Chief  Justice,  excluded  the  testimony  by  a  vote  of 
28  to  23.  The  witness  was  then  permitted  to  tell  of 
the  President's  tender  to  him  of  the  office  of  Secretary 
of  War  ad  interim  on  the  twenty-fifth  of  January  and 
again  on  the  thirtieth,  and  that  he  finally  replied  in 
writing ;  but  what  was  said  on  these  two  occasions,  gen 
erally  or  particularly,  was  rigorously  excluded.  This 
struggle  consumed  the  day ;  and  the  second  week  of  the 
tr\al  was  over. 

On  Monday,  the  efforts  of  counsel  to  get  this  testi 
mony  before  the  Senate  were  renewed  and  after  several 
failures  were  finally  successful.  Reverdy  Johnson 
put  the  following  question :  When  the  President  tend 
ered  to  you  the  office  of  Secretary  of  War  ad  interim, 
on  the  twenty-fifth  and  thirtieth  of  January,  did  he, 
at  the  very  time  of  making  each  tender,  state  to  you 
what  his  purpose  in  doing  so  was?  To  the  surprise 
and  mortification  of  the  managers,  the  Senate  admitted 
the  question  by  a  vote  of  26  to  22,  and  General  Sher 
man  was  permitted  to  give  his  testimony,  the  substance 
of  which  we  have  already  detailed. 

On  Tuesday,  the  severe  illness  of  Stanbery  compelled 
an  adjournment;  and,  on  Wednesday,  the  remaining 
counsel  for  the  President  proceeded  in  his  absence,  con 
fining  themselves  to  the  introduction  of  documentary 
proof. 

On  Thursday,  Sumner  enlivened  the  proceedings  by 
one  of  his  peculiar  moves.  He  sent  to  the  Chair  "a 
declaration  of  opinion, ' '  as  he  called  it,  "to  be  adopted 


THE    TRIAL  441 

by  the  Senate  in  answer  to  the  constantly  recurring  ques 
tions  on  the  inadmissibility  of  testimony. ' '  The  paper 
proposed,  "considering"  the  irresponsible  character 
of  the  tribunal  "to  hasten  the  despatch  of  business" 
by  admitting  "all  evidence  offered  on  either  side  not 
trivial  or  obviously  irrelevant. ' '  Sumner,  for  his  part, 
was  so  thoroughly  convinced  of  the  guilt  of  the  Presi 
dent,  he  needed  no  testimony  to  sustain  his  pre judg 
ment,  and  no  evidence,  whatever  its  weight,  could  have 
shaken  his  conviction  in  the  slightest  particular.  He 
was  impatient  to  reach  a  result  he  considered  certain, 
and  regarded  these  bickerings  over  questions  of  evi 
dence  with  much  disfavour.  Hitherto  he  had  acted  on 
this  idea  and  voted  to  admit  every  bit  of  testimony 
offered.  His  proposition  got  eleven  votes  and  was 
laid  on  the  table.  Counsellors  Cox  and  Merrick  were 
then  examined  concerning  the  criminal  prosecution  of 
Thomas  and  its  termination  in  his  discharge— a  matter 
already  narrated.  Several  attempts  to  keep  out  so 
much  of  the  evidence  of  these  witnesses  as  tended  to 
prove  the  intent  of  the  President  to  get  the  question 
into  the  courts  were  made  by  the  managers,  but  without 
success.  Butler  was  much  irritated  and  could  not 
forbear  from  lashing  out.  Towards  the  end  of  the 
dispute  he  rose  and  said:  "Mr.  President,  I  wish  it 
simply  understood,  that  I  may  clear  my  skirts  of  this 
matter,  that  this  all  goes  in  under  our  objection  and 
under  the  ruling  of  the  presiding  officer."  To  this 
insolent  insinuation  the  Chief  Justice  quietly  rejoined: 
"It  goes  in  under  the  direction  of  the  Senate  of  the 
United  States."  Edwin  0.  Perrin,  who  called  on 


442  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  President  in  company  with  a  member  of  Congress 
on  the  afternoon  of  the  twenty-first  of  February, 
was  sworn  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  at  the 
time  of  the  interview  the  President  supposed  that 
Stanton  had  virtually  retired  and  Thomas  was  already 
in  office;  but,  after  considerable  discussion,  although 
the  Chief  Justice  thought  the  testimony  admissible 
within  the  other  rulings  of  the  Senate,  it  was  excluded 
by  a  large  majority.  At  this  point,  Evarts  intimating 
that,  on  account  of  Stanbery's  illness,  it  would  be  more 
convenient  for  the  defence  to  produce  jio  more  testi 
mony  that  day,  Butler's  ill-suppressed  dissatisfaction 
with  the  recent  rulings  of  the  court  burst  forth  in  a  most 
extraordinary  appeal.  "The  whole  legislation  of  this 
country  is  stopping  " ;  he  cried.  ' i  While  we  are  wait 
ing  for  the  Attorney  General  to  get  well,  and  you  are 
asked  to  delay  this  trial  for  that  reason,  numbers  of 
our  fellow  citizens  are  being  murdered  day  by  day. 
There  is  not  a  man  here  who  does  not  know  that  the 
moment  justice  is  done  on  this  great  criminal,  these 
murders  will  cease."  Waving  aside  the  protests  the 
President's  counsel  here  interposed,  he  persisted  in 
dragging  before  the  court  matters  foreign  to  the  issue, 
of  which  there  was  no  proof,  nor  could  properly  be 
any :  the  Ku-Klux-Klan  outrages ;  the  flight  of  Spencer, 
register  in  bankruptcy;  sales  of  gold  by  the  Treasury 
at  enormous  sacrifices  (a  tabular  statement  of  which  he 
swung  aloft  in  his  hand)  ;  fraudulent  purchases  of  U.  S. 
bonds. 

"Now,  I  say,"  he  wildly  implored,   "for  the  safety  of 
the  finances  of  the  people,  for.  the  progress  of  the  legisla- 


THE    TRIAL  443 

tion  of  the  people,  for  the  safety  of  the  true  and  loyal 
men,  black  and  white,  in  the  South  who  have  perilled  their 
lives  for  four  years;  yea,  five  years;  yea,  six  years;  yea, 
seven  years,  in  your  behalf;  for  the  good  of  the  country, 
for  all  that  is  dear  to  any  man  and  patriot,  I  pray  let  this 
trial  proceed;  let  us  come. to  a  determination  of  this  issue." 


V      . 


Threats  of  assassination"  are  made,  he  said,  "every 
hour  and  upon  every  occasion,  even  when  objection  to 
testimony  is  made  by  the  managers."  "We  have  not 
the  slightest  fear  of  these  cowardly  menaces;  but  all 
these  threats,  these  unseemly  libels  on  our  form  of 
government,  will  go  away  when  this  man  goes  out  of 
the  White  House."  Evarts,  naturally,  was  shocked  at 
such  impropriety. 

"I  have  never  heard  such  a  harangue  before  in  a  court 
of  justice.  .  .  .  All  these  delays  and  the  ill  consequences 
seem  to  press  upon  the  honorable  managers  except  at  the 
precise  point  of  time  when  some  of  their  mouths  are  open 
occupying  your  attention  with  their  long  harangues  .  .  . 
and  now  twenty  minutes  by  the  watch  with  this  harangue 
of  the  honorable  manager  about  the  Ku-Klux-Klan.  I 
have  said  what  I  have  said  to  the  Senate. ' ' 

And  thereupon  the  Senate  adjourned. 

The  greater  part  of  the  fourteenth  day  of  the  trial 
was  consumed  in  taking  the  testimony  of  persons— re 
porters  and  others — who  heard  the  speeches  of  the 
President  and  gave  of  them  smoother  versions.  But 
towards  the  close  of  the  session,  a  genuine  sensation  was 
raised  by  the  calling  of  Secretary  Welles.  The  first 
fresh  fact  he  disclosed  was  that  the  Emory  interview 
was  occasioned  bv  a  rumour  of  the  clandestine  move- 


444  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ments  of  troops  which  the  Secretary  himself  carried  to 
the  President.  The  witness  then  detailed  the  conversa 
tion  at  the  close  of  the  Cabinet  meeting  of  the  twenty- 
first  of  February,  showing  that  the  President  supposed 
Thomas  was  m  possession  and  Stanton  had  yielded; 
requiring  only  time  to  remove  his  papers.  Incidentally 
it  was  brought  out  that  the  nomination  of  Ewing  was 
already  written  out.  The  examination  reverting  to 
the  Cabinet  consultation  over  the  Tenure-of-office  bill 
at  the  time  of  its  passage,  a  formal  offer  was  made  to 
prove  that  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  advised  the 
President  that  the  bill  was  unconstitutional,  and  that 
the  task  of  preparing  a  message  to  that  effect  was  de 
volved  on  Mr.  Seward  and  Mr.  Stanton.  The  managers 
at  once  perceived  that  this  matter  was  vital.  Butler 
"opened  the  debate "  as  he  called  it,  by  stating  the 
question  to  be  "whether  after  a  law  has  been  passed 
.  .  .  the  President  can  show  what  his  opinions  were, 
and  the  opinions  of  his  Cabinet,  before  it  was  passed, 
as  a  justification  for  refusing  to  obey  it  and  execute 
it";  and,  at  the  close  of  a  reply  by  Evarts,  the  Senate 
adjourned. 

The  next  morning  the  managers  came  in  anticipation 
of  a  field-day.  They  had  assigned  to  Wilson  the  task  of 
impugning  the  relevancy  of  this  important  testimony; 
and  that  manager  had  passed  the  night  in  the  prepara 
tion  of  his  argument  which  was,  in  truth,  a  dissertation 
adverse  to  the  claim  of  the  President  to  question  in  any 
way  an  act  of  Congress  passed  over  his  veto  on  the 
ground  of  its  constitutional  invalidity,  and  may  be  con 
sidered  as  the  manager's  contribution  to  the  summing 


THE    TRIAL  445 

up  of  the  cause,  in  which  he  did  not  participate.  Mr. 
Curtis,  who  replied,  declined  to  follow  the  manager  into 
the  large  field  he  opened  and  contented  himself  with 
pushing  the  point  that,  the  articles  having  charged  the 
President  with  intending  to  violate  the  Constitution, 
the  present  offer  was,  certainly,  material  to  rebut  that 
charge— whatever  might  be  its  weight;  the  testimony 
was  offered  to  establish  what  is  necessarily  the  first 
step  in  the  President's  justification,  namely:  "that  he 
honestly  believed  this  law  to  be  unconstitutional. ' ' 
The  Chief  Justice  held  the  evidence  admissible  on  the 
question  of  intent,  and  senator  Howard  promptly  called 
for  a  vote.  The  question  was  considered  a  test  one— 
decisive  of  one  entire  branch  of  the  defence.  The 
utmost  interest  was  excited  because  it  was  known  that 
Seward  and  McCulloch,  Browning  and  Randall,  stood 
ready  to  follow  Welles,  if  his  testimony  in  this  partic 
ular  was  admitted;  and  also  that  Stanton  might  be 
forced  to  take  the  stand.  The  yeas  were  twenty,  the 
nays  twenty-nine. 

Then  followed  another  offer  of  proof  more  significant 
and  vital  still,  viz :  That  at  the  Cabinet  meetings  at  the 
time  the  Tenure-of-office  bill  was  before  the  President 
for  approval,  Mr.  Stanton  being  present,  the  question 
whether  the  Secretary  of  War  and  the  other  Secretaries 
appointed  by  Mr.  Lincoln  were  within  the  restrictions 
imposed  by  the  act  was  considered,  and  that  the  opinion 
was  expressed  that  they  were  not.  The  Chief  Justice 
held  the  testimony  proper,  but  in  deference  to  the  pre 
vious  ruling  submitted  it  to  the  Senate,  and  it  was  ex 
cluded  by  a  vote  of  22  yeas  and  26  nays.  Two  other 


446  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

offers  were  made;  one  to  prove  that  the  Cabinet  con 
sidered  that  the  public  service  made  it  desirable  that 
upon  a  proper  case  a  judicial  determination  of  the  con 
stitutionality  of  the  law  should  be  obtained;  the  other 
to  prove  that  in  the  deliberations  of  the  Cabinet  on  the 
subject  no  suggestion  of  the  use  of  force  was  ever  made : 
—but  with  a  like  result.  Welles  was  not  allowed  to 
speak  and  left  the  stand.  The  Secretaries  of  State, 
of  the  Treasury  and  of  the  Interior,  in  attendance  ready 
to  testify,  were  not  sworn,  and  the  Postmaster-General 
took  the  stand  only  to  prove  that  Foster  Blodgett— a 
witness  for  the  prosecution,  for  whom  its  side  of  the 
case  was  reopened  that  he  might  testify  that  the  reasons 
of  his  suspension  were  not  communicated  to  the  Senate 
—was,  in  fact,  suspended  because  he  had  been  indicted 
for  perjury.  Before  Randall  left  the  stand,  senator 
Sherman  submitted  a  question:  "State  if  the  question 
whether  the  Secretaries  appointed  by  President  Lincoln 
were  included  within  the  provisions  of  the  Tenure  act 
came  before  the  Cabinet  for  discussion;  and,  if  so, 
what  opinion  was  given  on  the  question  by  members  of 
the  Cabinet  to  the  President!"  Butler  and  Bingham 
objected  that  this  was  the  same  question  just  voted  on 
and  senator  Howard  challenged  the  right  of  a  senator 
to  repeat  it.  The  Chief  Justice  promptly  affirmed  the 
right.  Butler  called  for  the  reading  of  the  recent  offer ; 
and  then  the  Senate  voted  with  the  same  result  as  be 
fore.  Sumner's  course  on  this  important  matter  ex 
cited  remark  but,  indeed,  was  characteristic  of  the  man. 
He  was  the  proposer  of  a  rule  to  admit  everything  in 
evidence,  not  manifestly  trivial,  to  avoid  delay.  And 


THE    TRIAL  447 

yet,  on  a  crucial  occasion  coming  almost  immediately 
after  his  proposal,  he  sat  silent  in  his  seat  and  deliber 
ately  refused  to  vote. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  these  questionable 
decisions  not  only  increased  the  popular  reprehension 
.of  the  Impeachment  but  actually  contributed  to  the  ac 
quittal  of  the  President ;  one,  if  not  more,  of  the  Repub 
lican  senators  who  joined  the  Democrats  in  voting  for 
the  admission  of  the  testimony,  subsequently  avowed 
that  he  could  not  vote  for  conviction  after  such  material 
and  important  facts  for  the  defence  had  been  deliber 
ately  shut  out  by  the  court.* 

The  taking  of  testimony  virtually  ended  with  these 
votes;  for,  although  the  court  adjourned  until  Monday, 
nothing  of  interest  or  importance  took  place  on  that  day ; 
and  an  adjournment  was  taken  until  Wednesday  when 
the  final  arguments  were  to  begin.  From  the  opening 
speech  of  Butler  to  the  close  of  the  testimony  (exclud 
ing  intermissions),  were  sixteen  days.  Deducting  the 
time  consumed  in  incidental  discussions,  the  taking  of 
testimony  consumed  not  more  than  four  days  on  both 
sides ;  and  what  little  oral  testimony  there  was  raised 
no  serious  conflict  on  a  single  question  of  fact.  Yet  the 
final  arguments  of  both  sides  stretched  from  Wednes 
day,  the  twenty-second  of  April,  to  Wednesday,  the 
sixth  of  May,  of  which  period,  deducting  the  two  Sun 
days,  the  managers  occupied  six  days  and  the  counsel 
for  the  President  seven.  Wilson  contented  himself 
with  his  elaborate  argument  against  the  admissibility 
of  the  testimony  of  the  Cabinet.  Butler  had  already 

*  Henderson's  Opinion,  Vol.  3  of  Trial,  p.  304. 


448    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

played  his  part  in  the  opening  address.  Logan  was 
forced  to  be  satisfied  with  filing  an  argument  of  fifty 
pages  of  print.  But  the  remaining  four— Bout  well, 
Williams,  Stevens  and  Bingham— were  accorded  the 
privilege  of  speaking  as  against  four  of  the  counsel 
for  the  President— Nelson,  Groesbeck,  Stanbery  and 
Evarts. 

The  arguments  pro  and  con  of  these  eight  lawyers 
on  the  question  confronting  them  on  the  threshold  of 
the  cause  and  the  determination  of  which  in  the  Presi 
dent's  favour  would  at  once  end  the  whole  proceeding, 
followed  the  same  line  as  the  respective  arguments  of 
Butler  and  Curtis  on  the  same  subject;  and  it  will  be 
more  profitable  to  extricate  them  from  the  bulk  of  the 
speeches  and  recapitulate  them  by  themselves. 

Mr.  Boutwell  insisted,  as  he  did  in  the  House,  that 
Andrew  Johnson  had  no  term,  that  he  was  serving  out 
Abraham  Lincoln's  term,  and,  therefore,  Stanton  came 
within  the  words  of  the  proviso.  He  said  nothing  in 
answer  to  Curtis 's  argument  that,  Stanton  having  been 
appointed  during  Lincoln's  first  term,  Lincoln,  if  liv 
ing,  would  have  been  at  liberty  to  remove  him  notwith 
standing  the  Tenure-of-office  act;— nor  did  he  tell  what 
had  become  of  Andrew  Johnson's  term  as  Vice  Presi 
dent.  His  whole  argument  upon  this  branch  of  the 
case  occupies  but  three  of  his  fifty-one  printed  pages. 
Groesbeck  refuted  him  upon  this  point  in  a  few  words : 

' '  The  gentleman  has  said  this  is  Mr.  Lincoln 's  term.  The 
dead  have  no  ownership  in  office  or  estate  of  any  kind. 
Mr.  Johnson  is  the  President  of  the  United  States  with 


THE    TRIAL  440 

a  term  and  this  is  his  term.  But  it  would  make  no  .differ 
ence  if  Mr.  Lincoln  were  living  to-day ;  if  Mr.  Lincoln  were 
President  to-day,  he  could  remove  Mr.  Stanton.  Mr.  Lincoln 
would  not  have  appointed  him  during  this  term.  It  was 
during  the  last  term  that  Mr.  Stanton  received  his  appoint 
ment,  and  not  this ;  and  an  appointment  by  a  President 
during  one  term,  by  the  operation  of  this  law  will  not  ex 
tend  the  appointee  through  another  term  because  that 
same  party  may  happen  to  be  re-elected  to  the  Presidency. 
Stanton,  therefore,  holds  under  his  commission,  and  not 
under  the  law." 

Bingham  excelled  himself  in  the  vehement  dogma 
tism  with  which  he  expounded  the  statute.  The  "term 
of  the  President  by  whom"  these  officers  were  ap 
pointed  meant,  he  said,  as  many  terms  as  any  one 
President  may  be  reelected  to  fill. 

"That  is  the  meaning  of  the  law.  That  is  all  there  is 
of  it.  The  word  'term'  determines  it.  Did  that  mean 
that  a  President  re-elected  for  a  term  .  .  .  should  be  relieved 
from  his  own  appointees  by  operation  of  law,  and  that,  too, 
without  his  consent,  and,  if  you  please,  against  his  wish? 
It  never  entered  the  mind  of  a  single  member  of  the 
thirty-ninth  Congress."  "If  Mr.  Lincoln  had  lived  .  .  . 
he  could  not  have  removed  a  single  head  of  department 
appointed  by  himself  at  any  time  during  his  term:  and 
I  do  not  care  how  often  his  term  was  renewed  it  was  still 
the  term  and  answered  to  the  statute."  "They  were  to 
hold  their  offices  .  .  .  during  the  entire  term,  if  it  should 
be  eight  years,  twelve  years  or  sixteen  years,  of  the  Presi 
dent  by  whom  they  were  appointed." 

Williams,  who,  as  one  of  the  conferees  on  the  part 
of  the  House  when  the  Tenure  act  was  passing,  had 

29 


450   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

suggested  this  unlucky  proviso  "for  the  purpose, "  as 
he  now  admitted,  "of  obviating  the  objection  .  .  .  that 
the  effect  of  the  amendment  would  be  to  impose  on  an 
incoming  President  a  cabinet  that  was  not  of  his  own 
choosing,"  was  listened  to  with  great  attention  when 
he  touched  upon  this  branch  of  the  case.  His  solution 
was  more  novel  than  satisfactory.  He  stated  that  "if 
it  was  intended  or  expected  that  it  (the  proviso)  should 
operate  to  create  exceptions  in  favor  of  an  officer  whose 
notorious  abuse  of  power  was  the  proximate  cause,  if 
not  the  impelling  motive,  for  the  enactment  of  the  law, 
I  did  not  know  it : "  and  in  making  this  avowal  he  may 
well  be  believed.  There  cannot  be  much  doubt  that 
the  majority  of  the  House  believed  they  had  protected 
Stanton;  and  Williams,  by  his  mode  of  meeting  the 
point  of  the  President's  counsel,  simply  shows  how  he 
and  the  House  with  him  happened  to  fall  into  this  mis 
understanding.  "The  argument  of  the  defendant," 
he  said,  "rests  upon  the-  meaning  of  the  word  'ap 
pointed.7  " 

"That  word  has  both  a  technical  meaning  and  a  popular 
one.  In  the  former,  which  involves  the  idea  of  a  nomina 
tion  and  confirmation  in  the  constitutional  way,  there  was 
no  appointment  certainly  by  Johnson.  In  the  latter,  which 
is  the  sense  in  which  the  people  will  read  it,  there  unques 
tionably  was.  What,  then,  was  meant  by  the  employment 
of  this  word? 

"For  the  President  of  the  United  States  to  say,  however, 
after  having  voluntarily  retained  Mr.  Stanton  for  more 
than  two  years  of  his  administration,  that  he  was  there 
only  by  sufferance,  or  as  a  mere  movable,  or  heirloom,  or 


THE    TRIAL  451 

incumbrance  that  passed  to  him  with  the  estate,  and  not 
by  virtue  of  his  own  special  appointment,  if  not  'paltering 
with  the  people  in  a  double  sense/  has  very  much  the  ap 
pearance  of  a  not  very  respectable  quibble.  The  unlearned 
man  who  reads  the  proviso— as  they  for  whose  perusal  it 
is  intended  will  read  it— and  who  is  not  accustomed  to 
handle  the  metaphysic  scissors  of  the  professional  casuists 
who  are  able  'to  divide  a  hair  'twixt  west  and  northwest 
side,'  while  he  admits  the  ingenuity  of  the  advocate,  will 
stand  amazed,  if  he  does  not  scorn  the  officer  who  would 
stoop  to  the  use  of  such  a  subterfuge." 

Mr.  Boutwell  revived  the  contention  that,  once  shown 
to  be  out  of  the  proviso,  Stanton  fell  inevitably  within 
the  main  body  of  the  section.  Stevens  regarded  this  a 
"more  conclusive  answer"  than  the  play  upon  the 
word  "term."  Williams,  also  said:  "If  Mr.  Stanton 
was  appointed  by  President  Johnson  within  the  mean 
ing*  of  the  proviso,  he  holds,  of  course,  until  the  expira 
tion  of  his  term.  If  not,  he  holds  subject  to  removal 
like  other  officers  under  the  enacting  clause."  Bingham 
was  overwhelmingly  emphatic  on  this  point.  "His 
(the  President's)  own  counsel  who  opened  the  case  .  .  . 
declares  that  there  are  no  express  words  within  the 
proviso  that  bring  the  Secretary  of  War,  Edwin  M. 
Stanton,  within  the  proviso.  That  is  his  own  position, 
and  that  being  so,  he  must  be  within  the  body  of  the 
statute.  There  is  no  escape  from  it." 

Evarts  had  no  difficulty  in  escaping  from  it  in  the 
following  complete  fashion : 

"The  argument  that  if  Stanton  is  not  within  the  proviso 
then  he  is  within  the  bodv  of  the  section  stumbles  over 


452   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

this  transparent  and  very  obvious  fallacy.  .  .  .  You  have 
not  made  a  law  about  Mr.  Stanton  by  name.  The  question 
is  whether  the  office  of  Secretary  of  War  is  within  the  sec 
tion  or  within  the  proviso ;  and  will  any  body  doubt  that  ? 
It  is  on  the  same  footing  as  the  other  Secretaryships.  The 
question  whether  the  office  of  Mr.  Stanton  or  the  office  of 
Mr.  Browning  is  within  one  or  the  other  alternatives  of 
the  section  is  not  a  question  of  construction  of  the  law, 
but  a  question  of  whether  the  tenure  or  actual  incumbency 
of  the  one  or  the  other  bring  him  within  the  proviso ;  his 
office  being  there,  the  fact  that  he  is  not  in  does  not  carry 
the  office  back  into  the  first  part  because  his  office  would 
be  back  there  for  the  future  as  well  as  for  the  past  and 
for  the  present.  It  is  a  statute  made  for  permanent  en 
durance  and  the  office  of  Secretary  of  War,  now  and  for 
ever,  as  long  as  the  statute  remains  upon  the  book,  is  dis 
posed  of  one  way  or  the  other  within  the  first  part  or 
within  the  proviso.  .  .  .  There  is  no  doubt  about  the  office 
being  under  the  proviso.  It  says  so : 

"  'Provided,  That  the  Secretaries  of  State,  of  the  Treas 
ury,  of  War,  of  the  Navy,  and  of  the  Interior,  the  Post 
master  General,  and  the  Attorney  General  shall  hold  their 
offices  respectively,'  &c.  That  does  not  mean  the  men;  it 
means  the  offices  shall  have  that  tenure. ' ' 

It  only  remains  to  inquire  whether  the  proviso  covers 
Mr.  Stanton 's  particular  predicament: 

"That  is  the  question  of  fact  in  the  construction  of  the 
proviso.  He  either  stays  in  the  proviso  or  he  drops  out 
of  the  proviso ;  and  if  he  personally  drops  out  of  the  pro 
viso  in  his  present  incumbency  he  cannot  get  back  into 
the  operative  clause,  because  he  cannot  get  back  there  with 
out  carrying  his  office  there,  and  his  office  never  can  get 
back." 


THE    TRIAL  453 

And  the  counsel  then  throws  in  the  following 
reductio  ad  absurdum: 

' '  How  absurd  a  result  that  is,  to  give  this  poor  President 
control  of  his  cabinet,  that  those  he  appointed  himself, 
if  he  should  happen 'to  be  re-elected,  he  could  get  rid  of  in 
a  month,  and  those  that  Mr.  Lincoln  appointed  for.  him 
from  the  beginning,  and  before  he  had  any  choice  in  it, 
he  must  hold  on  to  forever,  till  you  consent  that  they 
shall  go  out." 

In  reply  to  the  argument  of  Curtis  that  an  erroneous 
construction  by  the  President  of  an  ambiguous  statute 
could  not  be  an  impeachable  offence,  Mr.  Boutwell 
freely  admitted  that  in  such  a  contingency  the  President 
"would  be  fully  justified  and  upon  no  principle  of  right 
could  he  be  held  to  answer  as  for  a  misdemeanor  in 
office."  "  But,"  added  the  manager,  "that  is  not  this 
case. ' '  He  could  not  and  did  not  deny  that  the  law  was 
ambiguous,  at  least ;  but  he  claimed  that  the  President 
from  the  first  had  no  doubt  about  the  intention  of  the 
Congress; — citing,  in  proof,  the  veto  message  where 
the  President  arraigns  the  bill  as  in  conflict  with  the 
Constitution  because  it  restricted  the  President's  time- 
honoured  power  ' '  to  remove  from  their  places  any  civil 
officer."  Bingham  in  his  turn  avoided  the  same  point 
in  a  similar  manner.  He  even  contended  that  the 
proviso  was  susceptible  of  but  one  meaning— was  not 
ambiguous  at  all.  "I  have  no  doubt  of  its  being  the 
true  construction  of  the  law,  neither  had  the  accused"; 
and  he  stamped  any  other  construction  as  "an  after 
thought." 


454   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

With  respect  to  the  other  of  the  two  acts  which  con 
stituted  the  proximate  occasion  of  the  Impeachment - 
the  letter  to  Thomas— it  would  seem  that  the  unlawful 
ness  of  this  subsidiary  exercise  of  authority  was  so 
wrapped  up  in  the  unlawfulness  .of  the  main  act  of 
removal  that  they  must  necessarily  stand  or  fall  to 
gether.  Yet,  for  a  reason  which  will  become  apparent 
when  we  come  to  consider  the  verdict,  the  managers 
were  deeply  solicitous  to  establish  some  semblance  of 
criminality  in  the  temporary  designation  of  Thomas, 
even  conceding  the  power  to  remove  Stanton.  To  do 
this  they  were  compelled  to  follow  Butler  in  advancing 
arguments  of  such  technical  nicety  as  ( 1 )  that  the  act  of 
1795  did  not  apply  to  vacancies  caused  by  removal,  (2) 
that  the  six  months'  clause  was  violated  for  the  reason 
that  General  Grant's  term  ad  interim  expiring  on  the 
12th  of  February,  no  other  ad  interim,  supply  was  per 
missible;  and  (3)  that  the  act  of  1795  was  repealed  by 
the  act  of  1863;  the  first  of  which  the  President's 
counsel  answered  by  appealing  to  the  practice  of  the 
government;  the  second,  by  pointing  out  that  suspen 
sion  did  not  vacate  an  office  at  all,  a  vacancy  being 
made  only  by  a  complete  removal— in  practice  dating 
only  from  the  date  of  removal ;  the  third,  by  the  argu 
ment  that,  there  being  no  express  repeal  of  the  act  of 
1795  by  the  act  of  1863  and  the  latter  not  covering  cases 
of  vacancies  provided  for  by  the  former,  there  could 
be  no  total  repeal  by  implication.  But  the  most 
effectual  refutation  of  this  class  of  arguments  when 
applied  to  such  a  cause  lay  in  the  absurdity,  as  Evarts 
expressed  it,  "that  the  removal  of  the  President  should 


THE    TRIAL  455 

depend  upon  the  question  whether  an  Adjutant  General 
was  a  proper  locum  tenens  or  not,  or  whether,  entangled 
between  the  horns  of  the  repealed  and  unrepealed 
statutes,  the  President  may  have  erred  in  that  on  which 
he  hung  his  rightful  authority."  The  same  counsel, 
in  another  place,  conceding  for  the  sake  of  the  argument 
this  temporary  appointment  to  be  without  any  authority 
whatever,  asks  what  it  w^ould  amount  to? 

"It  would  simply  be  that  the  President  in  the  confusion 
among  the  statutes,  had  appointed,  or  attempted  to  appoint, 
an  ad  interim  discharge  of  the  office  without  authority  of 
law.  You  could  not  indict  him  very  well  for  it,  and  I  do 
not  think  you  can  impeach  him  for  it." 

Or,  as  he  remarks  elsewhere : 

"Truly,  indeed,  we  are  getting  very  nice  in  our  measure 
and  criticism  of  the  absolute  obligations  and  of  the  abso 
lute  acuteness  and  thoroughness  of  executive  functions 
when  AVC  seek  to  apply  the  process  of  impeachment  and 
removal  to  a  question  whether  an  act  of  Congress  re 
quired  him  to  name  a  head  of  a  department  to  take  the 
vacant  place  ad  interim  or  an  act  of  Congress  not  repealed 
permitted  him  to  take  a  suitable  person.  You  certainly 
do  not,  in  the  ordinary  affairs  of  life,  rig  up  a  trip-hammer 
to  crack  a  walnut." 

The  managers  hazarded  the  assertion  that  no  ad 
interim  appointment  was  warranted  while  the  Senate 
was  in  session— that  such. an  exercise  of  power  was  a 
virtual  nullification  of  the  right  of  the  Senate  to  parti 
cipate  in  the  appointing  power.  The  Constitution,  they 
claimed,  only  recognized  such  quasi  appointments  dur 
ing  recess  by  providing  that  commissions  might  be 


456    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

issued  to  expire  at  tlie  end  of  the  next  session  of  the 
Senate.  But,  here  again,  Evarts  demonstrated  that, 
respecting  these  temporary  designations,  the  discrimin 
ation  between  session  and  recess  could  have  no  founda 
tion.  "Ad  interim  appointments  do  not  rest  upon  the 
Constitution  at  all."  They  are  "not  a  filling  of  the  office 
which  remains  just  as  vacant  ...  as  if  the  temporary 
appointment  had  not  been  made. " 

"When  the  final  appointment  is  made  it  dates  as  from 
and  to  supply  the  place  of  the  person  whose  vacancy  led 
to  the  ad  interim  appointment.  That  in  the  very  nature 
of  things  there  should  be  no  difference  in  this  capacity 
between  recess  and  session  sufficiently  appears,  and  the 
acts  of  Congress  draw  no  distinction,  and  the  practice  of 
the  Government  makes  not  the  least  difference." 

We  have  now  given  the  substance  of  the  arguments 
on  the  leading,  it  might  properly  be  called  the  preroga 
tive,  issue  in  the  cause;  and  it  is  evident  that,  had  the 
summing  up  been  confined  to  what  Stanbery  called 
' '  the  head  and  front  of  the  entire  case, "  — "  Strike  it  out 
and  all  that  remains  is  leather  and  prunella" —the 
orators  must  have  exhausted  the  subject  in  two  or  three 
days  at  the  longest.  The  kernel  extracted,  the  several 
speeches  may  now  be  passed  in  review  upon  their  main 
subject-matter,  which,  in  the  speeches  of  the  managers 
at  least,  lay  outside  their  treatment  of  the  particular 
charges  on  which  the  Impeachment  was  founded.  The 
managers  were  not  troubled  over  the  establishment  of 
the  validity  of  what  was  more  or  less  consciously  recog 
nized  as  but  a  pretext  for  Impeachment,  to  such  a  de- 


THE    TRIAL  457 

gree  as  to  waste  six  whole  days  and  delay  the  result  they 
regarded  so  certain  for  that  length  of  time.  Their 
chief  concern  was  to  find  some  public  justification  for 
this  arraignment  of  the  President  of  the  United  States 
as  a  criminal,  and  the  dislocation  of  the  whole  adminis 
trative  machinery  of  the  government  hy  his  deposition. 
The  inadequacy  of  the  actual  case  to  call  forth  this  ex 
treme  remedy  of  state  drove  them  to  escape  from  its 
narrow  limits,  and,  following  in  the  wake  of  Butler, 
expend  their  powers  of  speech  upon  the  transcendent 
magnitude  of  issues  not  before  the  court  or  not  neces 
sarily  involved  in  the  cause,  and  upon  the  countless 
enormities  of  Andrew  Johnson  for  which  the  House  of 
Representatives,  nevertheless,  had  refused  to  impeach 
him.  The  counsel  for  the  President,  on  their  part,  were 
forced  to  pursue  their  opponents  along  the  circum 
ference  of  the  wide  circle  they  cut,  if  for  nothing  else, 
to  draw  them  back  to  the  central  nucleus  of  real 
matter,  which  seemed  to  work .  upon  them  with  so 
centrifugal  a  force.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  none 
of  the  speeches  takes  rank  with  the  celebrated  forensic 
efforts  of  history.  The  eloquence  of  a  Sheridan  or 
a  Burke  could  have  made  nothing  of  the  formal 
infraction  of  an  ambiguous  clause  in  a  statute,  that 
hurt  nobody  and  loosened  no  cog  in  the  machinery 
of  government— nothing,  of  stale  charges  of  treason, 
so  vague,  indefinite  and  intangible,  that  the  accusatory 
body  dared  not  make  them  the  subject  of  a  formal 
indictment. 

In  the  final  argument  Mr.  Boutwell  led  the  way,  as  it 
was  meet  he  should,  because,  if  not  the  father,  he  was 


458    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  nursing  mother  of  the  Impeachment.  For  the  last 
two  years  he  had  worked  early  and  late  to  bring  this 
monstrous  malefactor  of  his  imagination  to  the  bar,  and 
now  that  his  labours  were  crowned  with  success,  he  pre 
pared  himself  to  make  the  effort  of  his  life  to  transfuse 
his  own  fervent  conviction  into  the  minds  of  the  court 
and  the  country.  Trusting  nothing  to  the  inspiration 
of  the  moment,  he  had  written  out  his  entire  speech,  and 
he  read  it  from  printed  slips.  It  was  a  strong  presenta 
tion  of  a  case  against  the  President,  on  which,  however, 
he  was  not  being  tried.  Starting  with  the  admission 
common  to  all  the  managers  that  "the  issues  of  record 
.  .  .  are  technical  and  limited, "—he  makes  haste  to 
maintain  that  "the  grave,  national,  historical,  constitu 
tional  issue"  is  that  raised,  not  by  the  articles  of  Im 
peachment,  but  by  the  claim  made  in  the  President's 
answer  "of  the  power  at  any  or  all  times  of  removing 
from  office  all  executive  officers  for  cause  to  be  judged 
by  the  President  alone."  He  proceeds  to  discuss  the 
distribution  of  power  between  the  respective  depart 
ments  of  the  government;  and  holds  that  the  executive 
and  judiciary,  so  far  from  being  coordinate  with  the 
legislative,  are  in  effect  subordinate;  Congress  having, 
beside  its  coordinate  sphere,  a  general  supervisory  and 
regulatory  jurisdiction  over  the  other  two. 

:<The  legislative  department  has  original  power  derived 
from  the  Constitution,  by  which  it  can  set  and  keep  itself 
in  motion  as  a  branch  of  the  government,  while  the  execu 
tive  and  judicial  departments  have  no  self-executing  con 
stitutional  capacity,  but  are  constantly  dependent  upon 
the  legislative  department.  ..." 


THE    TRIAL  459 

"In  fine,  the  power  to  set  the  government  in  motion  and 
to  keep  it  in  motion  is  lodged  exclusively  in  Congress, 
under  the  provisions  of  the  Constitution." 

The  conclusion  he  draws  from  this  proposition  is  that 
"the  people  have  vested  discretionary  power"  in  the 
Congress  alone,  "while  they  have  denied  to  the  execu 
tive  and  judicial  departments  all  discretionary  or  im 
plied  power  whatever."  This  is  the  reason  why  vari 
ous  enumerated  powers  are  denied  to  Congress,  to  the 
United  States  and  to  the  several  states;  but  no  power 
is  specifically  denied  to  the  President  except  to  pardon 
in  cases  of  Impeachment.  And  therefore  "the  Presi 
dent  .  .  .  can  exercise  those  powers  only  which  are 
specifically  conferred  upon  him  and  can  take  nothing  by 
construction,  by  implication,  or  by  what  is  sometimes 
termed  the  necessity  of  the  case."  Like  the  judge  in 
a  court  of  law,  he  must  take  the  law  as  he  finds  it. 
When  he  has  vetoed  a  bill  his  power  is  exhausted.  If 
the  bill  is  passed  over  his  veto  he  has  only  to  execute 
it  without  question  or  demur. 

"To  the  President  in  the  performance  of  his  executive 
duties  all  laws  are  alike.  He  can  enter  into  no  inquiry 
as  to  their,  expediency  or  constitutionality.  All  laws  are 
presumed  to  be  constitutional,  and  whether  constitutional 
or  not,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Executive  so  to  regard  them 
while  they  have  the  form  of  law.  .  .  . 

"Hence  it  follows  that  the  crime  of  the  President  is  not, 
either  in  fact  or  as  set  forth  in  the  articles  of  impeachment, 
that  he  has  violated  a  constitutional  law;  but  his  crime  is 
that  he  has  violated  a  law,  and  in  his  defence  no  inquiry 
can  be  made  whether  the  law  is  constitutional.' 


460    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

And  the  manager  maintains  that  no  senator  on  this 
trial  has  a  right  to  inquire  into  the  constitutionality  of 
the  law  the  President  is  alleged  to  have  violated,  nor  to 
allow  his  opinion  of  its  unconstitutionality  to  govern 
him  in  his  verdict;  and  that  the  President,  having  no 
right  even  to  question  its  constitutionality,  could  not 
possibly  have  violated  it  from  any  other  than  a  bad 
motive.  He  sees  in  the  President's  alleged  purpose  to 
test  the  law  in  the  courts  nothing  but  a  pretext  to  con 
ceal  his  treasonable  designs. 

To  minimize  the  force  of  the  support  of  the  President 
by  his  Cabinet,  he  heaps  scorn  upon  the  subserviency 
of  such  officers;  revealing  a  singularly  low  conception 
of  a  position  he  himself,  not  long  after,  condescended  to 
accept. 

"Of  what  value  can  be  the  advice  of  men  who,  in  the 
first  instance,  admit  that  they  hold  their  offices  by  the  will 
of  the  person  who  seeks  their,  advice,  and  who  understand 
most  clearly  that  if  the  advice  they  give  should  be  contrary 
to  the  wishes  of  their  master,  they  would  be  at  once,  and 
in  conformity  with  their  own  theory  of  the  rights  of  the 
President,  deprived  of  the  offices  they  hold  ?  .  .  . 

"It  was  the  advice  of  serfs  to  their  lord,  of  servants  to 
their  master,  of  slaves  to  their  owner.  .  .  . 

"The  Cabinet  responds  to  Mr.  Johnson  like  old  Polonius 
to  Hamlet. 

"The  President  is  a  man  of  strong  will,  of  violent  pas 
sions,  of  unlimited  ambition,  with  a  capacity  to  employ 
and  use  timid  men,  adhesive  men,  subservient  men,  and 
corrupt  men,  as  the  instruments  of  his  designs.  It  is  the 
truth  of  history  that  he  has  injured  every  person  with 
whom  he  has  had  confidential  relations,  and  many  have 


THE    TRIAL  461 

escaped  ruin  only  by  withdrawing  from  his  society  alto 
gether.  He  has  one  rule  of  life :  he  attempts  to  use  every 
man  of  power,  capacity,  or  influence  within  his  reach. 
Succeeding  in  his  attempts,  they  are  in  time,  and  usually 
in  a  short  time,  utterly  ruined.  If  the  considerate  flee 
from  him,  if  the  brave  and  patriotic  resist  his  schemes  or 
expose  his  plans,  he  attacks  them  with  all  the  enginery  and 
patronage  of  his  office,  and  pursues  them  writh  all  the  vio 
lence  of  his  personal  hatred.  He  attacks  to  destroy  all 
who  will  not  become  his  instruments,  and  all  who  become 
his  instruments  are  destroyed  in  the  use.  He  spares  no 
one.  Already  this  purpose  of  his  life  is  illustrated  in  the 
treatment  of  a  gentleman  who  was  of  counsel  for  the  re 
spondent,  but  who  has  never  appeared  in  his  behalf." 

This  blighting  effect  of  the  President's  influence  he 
illustrated  by  a  reference  to  the  position  of  the  figures 
in  Carpenter's  Painting,  "The  signing  of  the  Eman 
cipation  Proclamation  " : — 

"It  was  natural  and  necessary,  that  the  artist  should 
arrange  the  personages  of  the  group  on  the  right  hand  and 
on  the  left  of  the  principal  figure.  Whether  the  particular 
assignment  was  by  chance,  by  the  taste  of  the  artist,  or 
by  the  influence  of  a  mysterious  Providence  which  works 
through  human  agency,  we  know  not.  But  on  the  right 
of  Lincoln  are  two  statesmen  and  patriots  who,  in  all  the 
trials  and  vicissitudes  of  these  eventful  years,  have  re 
mained  steadfast  to  liberty,  to  justice,  to  the  principles  of 
constitutional  government.  .  .  . 

"On  the  left  of  Lincoln  are  five  figures  representing  the 
other  members  of  his  Cabinet.  One  of  these  is  no  longer 
among  the  living;  he  died  before  the  evil  days  came,  and 
we  may  indulge  the  hope  that  he  would  have  escaped  the 


462    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

fate  of  his  associates.  Of  the  other  four,  three  have  been 
active  in  counselling  and  supporting  the  President  in  his 
attempts  to  subvert  the  government.  They  are  already 
ruined  men." 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  of  the  two  figures  on  the  right 
(Chase  and  Stanton)  Chase  was  already  falling  away. 
Of  the  five  on  the  left,  two— the  same  number  as  on  the 
right— Smith  and  Bates— "remained  steadfast/'  and 
thus  marred  the  symmetry  of  the  orator's  "providen 
tial"  arrangement,  while  Blair,  like  Chase,  was  never 
in  Johnson's  Cabinet  or  under  Johnson's  influence. 

Upon  his  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  legislative 
department,  the  manager  ingeniously  constructs  his 
theory  concerning  the  power  of  removal.  Not  being 
mentioned  in  the  Constitution  except  in  cases  of  im 
peachment,  that  power  in  fact  resides  nowhere.  The 
executive  taking  nothing  by  implication  does  not  pos 
sess  it.  And  it  is  not  specifically  granted  the  Congress. 
It  is  not  an  independent  power,  but  only  an  incident  of 
the  power  of  appointment,  and,  so  far  as  the  Constitu 
tion  deals  with  it,  can  only  be  exercised  by  making  an 
appointment.  It  is  nothing  more  than  a  power  of 
supersession  exercisable  only  while  the  Senate  is  in 
session.  There  being,  then,  no  provision  in  the  Consti 
tution  for  the  removal  of  incapable  or  dishonest  officials 
during  recess,  Congress,  under  the  grant  of  power  to 
make  all  laws  necessary  or  proper  to  carry  into  execu 
tion  all  the  powers  vested  in  any  department  of  the 
government,  can  step  in  and  supply  the  casus  omissus 
by  statute.  Congress  neglected  its  duty,  in  this  respect, 
until  it  passed  the  Tenure-of-office  act,  and  the  practice 


THE    TRIAL  463 

that  grew  up  during  this  long  interval  is  of  no  account 
upon  "a  subject  clearly  within  the  jurisdiction "  of  the 
law-making  power.  The  act  of  1789,  according  to  Mr. 
Boutwell,  simply  recognized  "the  power  of  removal 
during  the  recess  of  the  Senate ' ' ;  the  practice  under  it 
"upon  the  opinions  of  Attorney  Generals"  having  been 
tolerated  by  the  country  until  1867.  The  habit  of  ignor 
ing  inconvenient  facts  or  reversing  the  conclusions  of 
history,  to  which  many  fervid  advocates  are  addicted,  is 
exemplified  by  the  manager's  treatment  of  the  great 
debate  in  the  first  Congress  on  this  subject.  He  deliber 
ately  interjects  the  distinction  between  removal  during 
session  and  removal  during  recess — a  distinction  of 
which  there  is  no  trace  in  the  debate  itself.  He  be 
littles  "Madison's  views"  which  he  declares  "were 
gradually  and  finally,  successfully  undermined."  He 
dwells  almost  exclusively  on  the  arguments  of  Roger 
Sherman  and  other  members  of  the  minority  who  in 
sisted  that,  in  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  removal  as 
in  the  exercise  of  the  power  of  appointment,  the 
Senate  was  associated  with  the  President;  quoting  the 
remarks  of  Sherman  at  great  length  and  challenging 
Evarts  "to  overthrow  the  constitutional  argument  of 
his  illustrious  ancestor."  This  method  of  quotation  is 
very  much  like  the  citation  of  a  dissenting  opinion  to 
ascertain  the  principle  of  law  decided  in  a  given  case. 
The  exact  reverse  of  the  conclusions  arrived  at  could 
not  be  more  accurately  stated  than  is  done  in  what 
follows : 

"The  results  reached  by  the  Congress  of  1789  are  con 
clusive  upon  the  following  points:  that  the  body  was  of 


464   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

opinion  that  the  power  of  removal  was  not  in  the  President 
absolutely,  to  be  exercised  at  all  times  and  under  all  cir 
cumstances;  and,  secondly,  that  during  the  sessions  of  the 
Senate  the  power  of  removal  was  vested  in  the  President 
and  Senate  to  be  exercised  by  their  concurrent  action; 
while  the  debate  and  the  votes  indicate  that  the  power  of 
the  President  to  remove  from  office,  during  the  vacation 
of  the  Senate,  was,  at  best,  a  doubtful  power  under  the 
Constitution." 

Mr.  Boutwell  closes  this  branch  of  his  argument  by 
holding  that,  without  the  Tenure-of-office  act  at  all,  the 
President  was  guilty  of  a  violation  of  the  Constitution, 
even  under  the  act  of  1789,  because  he  removed  Stan- 
ton  during  the  session  of  the  Senate. 

We  do  not  propose  to  follow  the  manager  in  his  ex 
tremely  technical  argument  to  establish  the  conclusion 
that  the  ad  interim  appointment  of  Thomas  was  without 
authority  of  law;  nor  in  his  laboured  exposition  of  the 
conspiracy  articles  and  his  inflammatory  exaggeration 
of  the  Emory  article— already  recognized  by  almost 
everyone  as  doomed— but  to  hurry  on  to  the  close  of  his 
address  where  the  real  source  of  his  zeal  for  the  removal 
of  the  President  discloses  itself  in  the  bitterness  of  his 
speech.  He  demands  a  conviction  on  the  tenth  article— 
not  because  the  President  slandered  or  libelled  the  Con 
gress  ;  this  he  could  not  do ;  but  because  the  speeches 
show  him  "unfit  for  the  office  that  he  holds."  In  this 
connection  he  lays  down  a  proposition  of  law,  so  vague 
and  elastic  that,  if  once  incorporated  into  the  funda 
mental  law  of  the  country,  it  would  render  impeach 
ments  as  common  as  elections. 


THE    TRIAL  465 

"AYe  claim  that  the  common  law  of  crimes,  as  under 
stood  and  enforced  by  Parliament  in  cases  of  impeach 
ment,  is  in  substance  this :  that  no  person  in  office  shall  do 
any  act  contrary  to  the  good  morals  of  the  office ;  and 
that,  when  any  officer  is  guilty  of  an  act  contrary  to  the 
good  morals  of  the  office  which  he  holds  that  act  is  a  mis 
demeanor  for  the  purpose  of  impeachment  and  removal 
from  office." 

The  eleventh  article  it  is  that  furnishes  Mr.  Boutwell 
the  text  from  which  he  rises  to  the  height  of  his  invec 
tive.  ''  The  President 's  most  heinous  offence  is  his  re- 
sistanclTlo  the  congressional  plan  of  reconstruction. 
Confounding  all  distinction  between  accusations  of  the 
former  impeachment  and  accusations  incorporated  into 
the  articles,  the  manager  goes  back  to  the  beginning 
of  the  administration  of  Andrew  Johnson,  and,  because 
of  the  course  of  policy  the  President  adopted  on  the  sub 
ject  of  reconstruction,  arraigns  him  as  a  tyrant,  a 
usurper,  an  apostate  and  a  traitor..  ' i  His  entire  scheme 
of  criminal  ambition,"  the  manager  cries  out,  "was  no 
less  than  this ' ' : 

"To  obtain  command  of  the  War  Department  and  of 
the  army,  and  by  their  combined  power  to  control  the 
elections  of  1868  in  the  ten  States  not  yet  restored  to  the 
Union;  ...  to  inaugurate  a  policy  throughout  the  ten 
States  by  which  the  former  rebels,  strengthened  by  the 
support  of  the  Executive  here,  and  by  the  military  forces 
distributed  over  the  South,  would  exclude  from  the  polls 
every  colored  man,  and  to  permit  the  exercise  of  the  elec 
tive  franchise  by  every  white  rebel;  ...  to  control  the 
entire  vote  of  the  ten  rebel  States ;  ...  to  secure  the  elec- 

30 


466  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

tion  of  delegates  to  the  democratic  national  convention 
favorable  to  his  own  nomination  to  the  presidency,  ...  to 
secure  first,  the  nomination  of  the  democratic  party  in  the 
national  nominating  convention,  and,  secondly,  the  elec 
toral  vote  of  these,  ten  States.  This  being  done,  he  had 
only  to  obtain  enough  votes  from  the  States  now  repre 
sented  in  Congress  to  make  a  majority  of  electoral  votes, 
and  he  would  defy  the  House  and  Senate  should  they 
attempt  to  reject  the  votes  of  the  ten  States,  and  this 
whether  those  States  had  been  previously  restored  to  the 
Union  or  not ;  .  .  .  and  he  would  have  been  inaugurated 
on  the  4th  of  March  next  president  of  the  United  States 
for  four  years." 

The  rapt  orator  continues : 

"Never  in  the  history  of  any  free  government  has  there 
been  so  base,  so  gross,  so  unjustifiable  an  attempt  upon 
the  part  of  the  executive,  whether  Emperor,  King  or  Presi 
dent,  to  destroy  the  just  authority  of  another  department 
of  the  government. 

"The  exhibition  which  he  made  in  this  chamber  on  the 
4th  of  March,  1865,  by  which  the  nation  was  humiliated 
and  republican  institutions  disgraced  in  the  presence  of 
the  representatives  of  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth, 
is  a  truthful  exhibition  of  his  character." 

He  compares  Andrew  Johnson  unfavourably  with  the 
most  celebrated  impeached  culprits  of  history.  The 
offence  for  which  the  Earl  of  Macclesfield  was  con 
victed  was  "a  trivial  crime  compared  with  the  open, 
wanton  and  defiant  violation  of  law"  of  this  Chief 
Magistrate.  Warren  Hastings,  even  "if  the  charges 
preferred  against  him  had  been  fully  sustained, " 


THE    TRIAL  467 

"  would  be  regarded  as  an  unimportant  criminal  when 
compared  with  this  respondent."  Verres — "the  great 
political  criminal  of  history"— by  reason  of  the  small 
area  of  the  country  he  scourged,  was  an  insignificant 
malefactor  beside  him.  Andrew  Johnson,  the  man 
ager  declares,  ' '  takes  the  place  of  Charles  I, ' '  and  Stan- 
ton  the  place  of  John  Hampden.  Having  thus  pictured 
forth  the  monstrous  figure  inflaming  his  own  imagina 
tion,  he  felt  impelled  to  invent  for  it  a  punishment  as 
fantastic  as  itself: 

"Travellers  and  astronomers  inform  us  that  in  the  south 
ern  heavens,  near  the  southern  cross,  there  is  a  vast  space 
which  the  uneducated  call  the  hole  in  the  sky,  where  the 
eye  of  man,  with  the  aid  of  the  powers  of  the  telescope, 
has  been  unable  to  discover  nebulae,  or  asteroid,  or  comet, 
or  planet,  or  star,  or  sun.  In  that  dreary,  cold,  dark  re 
gion  of  space,  which  is  only  known  to  be  less  than  infinite 
by  the  evidences  of  creation  elsewhere,  the  Great  Author 
of  celestial  mechanism  has  left  the  chaos  which  was  in  the 
beginning.  If  this  earth  wrere  capable  of  the  sentiments 
and  emotions  of  justice  and  virtue,  which  in  human  mortal 
things  are  the  evidences  and  the  pledge  of  our  Divine 
origin  and  immortal  destiny,  it  would  heave  and  throw, 
with  the  energy  of  the  elemental  forces  of  nature,  and 
project  this  enemy  of  two  races  of  men  into  that  vast  re 
gion,  there  forever  to  exist  in  a  solitude  eternal  as  life, 
or  as  the  absence  of  life,  emblematical  of,  if  not  really, 
that  'outer  darkness'  of  which  the  Saviour  of  men  spoke 
in  warning  to  those  who  are  the  enemies  of  themselves, 
of  their  race,  and  of  their  God." 

Thomas  A.  E.  Nelson,  who  followed  Mr.  Boutwell, 
was  the  personal  friend  as  well  as  counsel  of  the  Presi- 


468   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

dent.  Born  and  brought  up  in  the  same  section  of  Ten 
nessee,  although  opposed  to  each  other  in  the  days  first 
of  the  Whig  and  then  of  the  American  parties,  they 
were  united  in  their  stand  for  the  Union.  A  representa 
tive  in  the  Congress  that  immediately  preceded  the  out 
break  of  the  civil  war  and  an  ardent  opponent  of  the 
extreme  measures  of  the  majority  of  his  colleagues  from 
the  South,  Nelson  witnessed  the  unequal  fight  the  soli 
tary  senator  from  his  state  made  against  the  banded 
forces  of  their  common  section;  and,  subsequently,  in 
his  retirement,  he  looked  on  while  Andrew  Johnson  bore 
off  the  standard  of  Tennessee  through  the  encompass 
ing  hosts  of  her  rebellious  sons.  With  such  remem 
brances  fresh  in  his  mind,  he  was  shocked  by  the  whole 
sale  denunciations  and  abusive  epithets  hurled  at  the 
President  by  Butler  and  Boutwell;  and  his  speech  is 
chiefly  remarkable  as  an  impulsive  outburst  of  righteous 
indignation  at  what  appeared  to  him  such  gross  and 
almost  inconceivable  injustice. 

"Who  is  Andrew  Johnson?"  he  cried.  "When  treason 
was  rife  in  this  capitol  .  .  .  where  was  Andrew  Johnson 
then?  Standing  here,  almost  within  ten  feet  of  the  place 
in  which  I  stand  now,  solitary  and  alone,  in  this  magnifi 
cent  chamber,  when  'Bloody  treason  flourished  over  us,' 
his  voice  was  heard  arousing  the  nation.  Some  of  you 
heard  it.  I  only  heard  its  echoes  as  it  rolled  along  from 
one  end  of  the  land  to  the  other.  .  .  .  He  who  has  periled 
his  life  in  a  thousand  forms  to  put  down  treason— he  now 
is  stigmatized  as  a  traitor  himself.  .  .  .  AVho  is  the  Presi 
dent  of  the  United  States  ?  A  Democrat  of  the  straightest, 
of  the  strict  constructionists :  an  old  Jacksonian,  Jeffer- 


THE    TRIAL  469 

sonian  Democrat:  a  man  who  proclaimed  his  democracy  in 
the  very  letter  of  acceptance  which  he  wrote  when  nomi 
nated  for  the  Vice-Presidency." 

The  resolution  of  July,  1861,  of  which  he  was  the 
author,  setting  forth  the  real  object  of  the  war,  ''is  the 
chart  that  has  guided  him  in  the  discharge  of  his  offi 
cial  duty ;  there  is  the  platform  on  which  he  stood. ' ' 

"Up  to  the  assembling  of  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  in  December,  1865,  who  was  there  in  all  this  broad 
land,  from  one  end  of  it  to  the  other,  that  dared  to  point 
'the  slow,  unmoving  finger  of  scorn'  at  Andrew  Johnson 
and  say  that  he  was  a  traitor  to  his  party,  or  say  that  he 
had  betrayed  any  trust  reposed  in  him  ?  He  was  faithfully 
carrying  out  what,  I  repeat,  he  believed  to  be  the  policy 
of  Congress  and  of  his  predecessors.  He  was  anxious  that 
this  Union  should  be  restored.  He  was  anxious  to  pour 
oil  upon  the  troubled  waters  and  heal  the  wounds  of  his 
distracted  and  divided  country.  If  he  erred  in  this,  it  was 
almost  a  divine  error." 

And  yet,  the  counsel  exclaims  in  sheer  wonder : 

"Never  since  the  days  of  Warren  Hastings,  ay,  never 
since  the  days  of  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  has  any  man  been 
stigmatized  with  more  severe  reprobation  than  the  President 
of  the  United  States.  All  the  powers  of  invective  which 
the  able  and  ingenious  managers  can  command  have  been 
brought  into  requisition  to  fire  your  hearts  and  to  preju 
dice  your  minds  against  him.  A  perfect  storm  has  been 
raised  around  him." 

*  '  But, ' '  he  adds  with  a  pardonable  pride, 

"I  have  the  pleasure  to  state  to  you,  senators,  to-day,  and 
I  hope  that  my  voice  will  reach  the  whole  country,  that 


470  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

in  the  midst  of  it  all  he  still  stands  firm,  serene,  unbent, 
unbroken,  unsubdued,  unawed,  unterrified,  hurling  no  words 
of  threat  or  menace  at  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
threatening  no  civil  war  to  deluge  his  country  with  blood ; 
but  feeling  a  proud  consciousness  of  his  own  integrity, 
appealing  to  heaven  to  witness  the  purity  of  his  motives 
in  his  public  administration,  and  calling  upon  you,  sena 
tors,  in  the  name  of  the  living  God,  to  whom  you  have 
made  an  appeal,  ...  to  pronounce  him  innocent  of  the 
offences  which  have  been  charged  against  him." 

Mr.  Boutwell's  allusion  to  Black's  abandonment  of  the 
defence  provoked  the  counsel  to  give  the  Senate  a  narra 
tive  of  the  attempt  to  extort  a  favourable  decision  from 
the  President  in  the  Alta  Vela  matter,  in  doing  which 
he  stated  the  contents  of  Butler's  letter  and  its  date 
of  March  ninth  ;*  and,  in  connection  with  this  revelation, 
he  mentions  one  trait  of  Andrew  Johnson : 

"He  is  a  man  of  peculiar  temperament  and  disposition. 
By  careful  management  and  proper  manipulation  he  may, 
perhaps,  be  gently  led;  but  it  is  a  pretty  difficult  thing 
to  do  that.  But  with  his  temperament  and  his  disposition, 
no  man,  no  power  under  the  heavens  can  compel  him  to 
go  one  inch  beyond  what  he  believes  to  be  right;  and  al 
though  he  knew  that  in  rejecting  this  claim  in  the  peculiar 
situation  in  which  he  was  placed  he  might  raise  up  enemies 
against  him,  although  he  was  well  aware  that  a  powerful 
influence  might  be  brought  to  bear,  against  him  in  this  trial, 
and  that  it  would  be  trumpeted  abroad  from  one  end  of  the 
Union  to  the  other  that  Judge  Black  had  become  disgusted 
with  his  cause  and  dissatisfied  with  it,  and  had  deserted  it 
and  abandoned  it  on  account  of  his  full  conviction  of  his 
*  See  supra,  Chap.  V,  p.  397. 


-THE    TRIAL  471 

guilt  ...  he  was  determined  not  to  employ  the  whole  power 
of  the  United  States  in  a  war  against  a  little  power  down 
here  that  had  no  capacity  of  resistance." 

William  S.  Groesbeck,  who  followed  Nelson,  was  the 
least  known  of  the  President's  counsel.  Though  born 
in  the.  city  of  New  York  in  the  year  1815,  he  had  spent 
the  whole  of  his  active  life  in  the  city  of  Cincinnati  en 
gaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession.  A  Democratic 
representative  in  the  thirty-fifth  Congress  (57-9) ;  a 
member  of  the  Peace  Congress  in  1861 ;  and  a  senator  in 
the  Ohio  legislature  the  following  year: — this  was  the 
extent  of  his  public  service  and,  as  he  was  by  nature 
modest  and  unobstrusive,  he  made  no  noise  in  the  world. 
He  was  a  lawyer  rather  than  a  politician— and  a  lawyer 
who  loved  the  still  air  of  delightful  studies  more  than 
the  loud  contentions  of  the  forum.  Substituted  at  the 
last  moment  for  the  distinguished  Black,  he  sat  through 
the  trial  without  uttering  a  word;  content,  apparently, 
with  the  unpretentious  function  of  private  consultation 
and  silent  preparation;  and,  probably,  he  did  not  ex 
pect  to  speak  at  all  until  it  was  ascertained  that  four  of 
the  managers  would  participate  in  the  final  argument. 
When  he  arose  to  address  the  court  he  was  labouring 
under  severe  physical  indisposition  so  perceptibly  that 
before  he  had  proceeded  far  senator  Fessenden  pro 
posed  to  relieve  him  by  an  adjournment.  This  kind 
offer  he  put  aside  with  the  remark — "I  have  appre 
hensions  that  I  shall  not  be  better  if  this  matter-  is 
postponed ";  and  continued  right  on  to  the  end  of  the 
day.  His  argument  was  plain,  sententious,  straightfor- 


472  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ward,  without  digression  and  without  a  flaw.  Com 
ing  immediately  after  Nelson's  incontinent  declama 
tion,  it  struck  with  double  force.  His  terse  and  impres 
sive  exordium  at  once  attracted  the  undivided  atten 
tion  of  the  court : 

''Since  the  organization  of  our  government  we  have  had 
five  trials  of  impeachment— one  of  a  senator  and  four  of 
judges  who  held  their,  office  by  appointment  and  for  a 
tenure  that  lasted  during  their  life  or  good  behavior.  It 
has  not  been  the  practice,  nor  is  it  the  wise  policy,  of  a 
republican  or  representative  government  to  avail  itself  of 
the  remedy  of  impeachment  for  the  control  and  regulation 
of  its  elective  officers.  Impeachment  was  not  invented  for 
that  purpose,  but  rather  to  lay  hold  of  offices  that  were 
held  by  inheritance  or  for  life.  And  the  true  policy  of  a 
republican  government,  according  to  my  apprehension,  is 
to  leave  these  matters  to  the  people.  They  are  the  great 
and  supreme  tribunal  to  try  such  questions,  and  they  as 
semble  statedly  with  the  single  object  to  decide  whether 
an  officer  shall  be  continued  or  whether  he  shall  be  removed 
from  office." 

We  cannot  follow  him  in  his  neat  demonstration  that 
the  tribunal  he  was  addressing  was  a  court,  presup 
posed  to  be  so  by  the  words  of  the  Constitution,  desig 
nated  by  itself  a  court  in  every  one  of  the  five  pre 
cedents  of  our  history;  and  that,  being  a  court,  there 
could  be  no  trial  of  any  charge  but  those  preferred  in 
the  articles  before  them,  and  they  must  be  sustained,  not 
by  ' l  common  fame, "  or  "  newspaper  rumor, "  or  "  views 
of  party  policy,"  but  "upon  the  evidence  offered  here 
and  nothing  else."  Nor  is  it  necessary  to  give  even 


THE    TRIAL  473 

a  summary  of  his  argument  proving,  first,  the  Presi 
dent's  right  to  remove  Stanton  and,  second,  his  right 
to  issue  the  letter  of  authority  to  Thomas,  two  proposi 
tions  on  the  establishment  of  which  he  says  truly ;  ' '  the 
first  eight  articles  fell  into  ruins  instantly,"  "there 
is  nothing  left  of  them": — the  less  so  as  we  have 
already  cited  the  passage  which  is  its  keystone.  But 
we  cannot  refrain  from  glancing  at  the  admirable  man 
ner  in  which  he  answers  Mr.  Boutwell's  theory  of  the 
superiority  of  the  legislative  department  over  the  others 
and  the  abject  servitude  of  the  executive  under  an  act 
of  Congress.  "Our  government  is  composed  of  three 
departments,"  Groesbeck  quietly  premises.  "They 
are  each  independent  of  the  other.  No  one  is  respon 
sible  to  the  other.  They  are  responsible  to  the  people 
or  to  the  state.  All  this  is  carefully  set  down  in  the 
Constitution. ' ' 

"Those  who  have  charge  of  these  various  departments, 
by  the  theory  and  structure  of  the  government,  are  en 
joined  each  to  take  care  of  its  own  prerogative,  if  I  may  use 
such  a  word,  and  to  protect  itself  against  all  possible  en 
croachment  from  the  others.  This  they  do,  each  and  every 
department,  by  observing  with  the  utmost  fidelity  the  pro 
visions  of  the  written  Constitution."  "At  the  head  of  one 
of  these  departments  stands  the  President."  "He  is  re 
quired,  in  addition  to  the  oath  covering  his  ordinary  execu 
tive  duties,  to  swear  to  the  best  of  his  ability  to  preserve, 
protect  and  defend  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States. 
That  oath  is  administered  to  the  President  alone  of  all  the 
officers  of  the  government. 

"It  does  seem  to  me  that  the  terms  of  such  an  oath 
solemnly  imposed  upon  him  would  impress  him  with  the 


474  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

idea,  or  any  of  us  with  the  idea,  that  it  was  the  first  para 
mount  duty  that  he  should  ever,  in  all  his  executive  con 
duct,  keep  his  eye  upon  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States;  in  all  trial  that  he  should  look  to  it;  in  all  doubt 
that  he  should  lean  toward  it ;  in  all  difficulty  that  he 
should  take  shelter  under  it." 

"The  sum  and  substance"  of  Mr.  Boutwell's  eloquent 
argument,  "was  that  the  President  is  but  the  constable  of 
the  Congress ;  no  more ;  that  he  is  put  into  his  place  merely 
to  execute  the  laws  of  Congress.  Why,  senators,  this  is 
not  the  right  interpretation  of  the  Constitution.  He  is  the 
Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation,  having  charge  of  one  of 
its  great  departments ;  and  he  is  faithless  to  his  trust  if 
he  do  not  protect  the  powers  conferred  by  the  Constitution 
upon  that  department."  AYhat  then?  "Shall  he  disre 
gard  law?  Never.  He  should  never  in  mere  wantonness 
disregard  any  law  of  Congress  that  may  be  passed. "  "  Shall 
he  execute  all  law?"  as  the  manager  insists. 

"Let  me  tell  the  gentleman,  in  answer  to  his  long  argu 
mentation  upon  this  point,  that  he  makes  no  distinction 
between  law  whatever,  that  if  an  act  of  Congress  be  un 
constitutional  it  is  no  law;  it  never  was  a  law;  it  never 
had  a  particle  of  validity,  although  it  went  through  the 
forms  of  congressional  enactment ;  from  the  beginning  ab 
initio  it  was  null  and  void,  and  to  execute  it  is  to  violate 
that  higher  law,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
which  declares  that  to  be  no  law  which  is  in  conflict  with 
its  provision." 

"If  a  law  be  declared  by  the  Supreme  Court  unconstitu 
tional  he  should  not  execute  it.  If  the  law  be  upon  its 
very  face  in  flat  contradiction  to  the  plain  express  pro 
visions  of  the  Constitution,  as  if  a  law  should  forbid  the 
President  to  grant  a  pardon  in  any  case,  or  if  a  law  should 


THE    TRIAL  475 

declare  that  he  should  not  be  Commander-in-chief,  or  if 
a  law  should  declare  that  he  should  take  no  part  in  the 
making:  of  a  treaty,  I  say  the  President,  without  going  to 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  maintaining  the 
integrity  of  his  department,  which  for  the  time  being  is 
intrusted  to  him,  is  bound  to  execute  no  such  legislation; 
and  he  is  cowardly  and  untrue  to  the  responsibilities  of 
his  position  if  he  should  execute  it." 

But  "the  difficulty  is  not  here.     The  difficulty  arises 
in  doubtful  cases. ' ' 

"Suppose  an  act  of  Congress  interpret  the  Constitution 
for  the  first  time,  shall  the  President  execute  it?  I  say 
yes.  Suppose  an  act,  instead  of  giving  an  interpretation 
for  the  first  time  in  a  doubtful  case,  contradicts  a  long 
accepted  previous  interpretation— in  this  supposition  we 
are  approaching  the  case  before  us — what  is  to  be  done? 
To  follow  the  Constitution  is  the  first  and  paramount  duty 
of  the  President,  and  to  maintain  the  integrity  of  his  de 
partment  is  also  a  duty ;  and  if  an  act  of  to-day  is  contrary 
to  a  long  established  interpretation  of  the  Constitution 
upon  a  question  of  power,  and  a  fit  case  presents  itself 
when  he  is  required  to  act,  it  is  right  and  proper,  in  a 
peaceable  way,  with  due  regard  for  the  public  welfare,  to 
test  the  accuracy  of  the  new  interpretation  in  the  forum 
which  is  the  highest  and  the  final  interpreter  of  such  ques 
tions." 

The  counsel  then  goes  on  to  show  that  the  act  of  1789 
was  ' '  constitutional  interpretation ' ' : 

"Washington  approved  the  bill,  Adams's  vote  passed  it, 
Jefferson  maintained  the  same  position,  Madison  drew  the 
bill,  Monroe  and  Jackson  and  the  Presidents  that  followed 


476  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

them  all  maintained  the  same  construction,  and  every  Presi 
dent,  including  President  Lincoln,  through  all  our  history 
of  eighty  years  and  twenty  administrations  maintained  this 
construction  upon  the  question  of  where  the  power  of  re 
moval  is  lodged,"  and  every  subsequent  Congress  down 
to  the  Thirty-ninth.  ' 

On  the  other  hand,  the  civil  tenure  act  of  1867  is  also 
"constitutional  interpretation,"  and  between  the  two 
the  question  arises,  what  is  the  duty  of  the  President  ? 

"All  the  Presidents,  every  revered  name  that  ever  filled 
the  office,  affirming  this  doctrine ;  the  Supreme  Court  utter 
ing  itself  upon  this  doctrine ;  thirty-eight  Congresses  affirm 
ing  this  doctrine ;  this  on  one  side  and  one  Congress  on  the 
other.  May  not  human  reason  pause?  May  not  human 
judgment  doubt?  .  .  .  was  it  criminal,  I  say,  that  he,  too, 
believed  in  that  way,  and  thought  that  it  was  a  proper  case, 
it  being  simply  a  question  of  constitutional  interpretation, 
to  pass  to  that  tribunal  which  has  a  higher  right  than  the 
Executive  and  higher  than  Congress  upon  the  subject  of 
interpretation  ? ' ' 

"Now  what  was  Mr.  Johnson's  condition?  He  had 
a  cabinet  officer  who  was  unfriendly  to  him  personally 
and  politically." 

"He  carried  on  the  department  without  communication 
with  the  President;  a  sort  of  secondary  executive.  The 
unity  of  the  Cabinet  was  gone.  .  .  .  That  was  the  case,  his 
own  case,  a  case  pressing  upon  him,  not  sought;  and  in 
executing  the  duty,  as  he  conceived  it  to  be,  to  effect  that 
change  he  came  in  conflict  with  this  law,  and  proposed  to 
have  its  constitutional  validity  tested. 


THE    TRIAL  477 

''But,  say  the  gentlemen,  he  executed  this  law  in  other 
respects,  he  changed  the  forms  of  his  commissions;  he  re 
ported  suspensions  under  this  law.  So  he  did;  and,  sena 
tors,  it  is  one  of  the  strongest  Jacts  in  this  case.  He  did 
not  take  up  the  law  and  tear  it  to  pieces.  That  is  lawless 
ness.  He  took  it  up  to  have  it  interpreted  in  the  case  that 
pressed  upon  him  individually,  and  in  all  other  respects 
he  executed  it  without  the  surrender  of  his  own  convic 
tions.  .  .  . 

"He  tried  to  pluck  a  thorn  out  of  his  very  heart.  .  .  . 
You  fastened  it  there  and  you  are  now  asked  to  punish 
him  for  attempting  to  extract  it.  What  more?  He  made 
an  ad  interim  appointment  to  last  for  a  single  day.  You 
could  have  terminated  it  whenever  you  saw  fit.  You  had 
only  to  take  up  the  nomination  which  he  sent  to  you,  which 
was  a  good  nomination,  and  act  upon  it,  and  the  ad  interim 
appointment  vanished  like  smoke." 

Coming  to  the  tenth  article  he  threw  that  specimen  of 
pleading  into  a  shape  that  made  its  charges  ridiculous. 

"In  1798  some  good  people  in  the  country  seem  to  have 
been  operated  upon  very  much  as  the  managers,  or  rather 
the  House  of  Representatives,  were  in  this  instance,  and 
they  took  it  into  their  heads  to  get  up  what  is  called  a  sedi 
tion  law,  which  is  very  like  article  ten." 

Reading  the  law  he  remarked : 

* '  It  was  the  most  offensive  law  that  has  ever  been  passed, 
since  the  government  was  organized.  So  offensive  was  it 
that  the  people  would  not  rest  under  it  although  it  was 
passed  to  last  but  three  years.  They  started,  as  it  were, 
the  hue  and  cry  against  everybody  who  defended  it  or  was 
concerned  in  it,  and  hunted  them  to  political  death.  But 


478  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

it  wras  a  good  law  compared  to  article  ten.  It  condemned 
the  act  of  coolly  and  under  no  provocation  or  excitement 
preparing  and  publishing  a  libel  against  the  government. 
.  .  .  But  so  unpopular  was  it,  that  Congress  has  not  ven 
tured  to  pass  a  law  upon  the  subject  of  libel  against  the 
government  or  any  department  from  that  day  to  this. 

"It  has  been  reserved  for  the  House  of  Representatives, 
through  its  managers,  to  renew  the  practice  in  a  more  ob 
jectionable  form.  And  I  take  it  upon  myself  to  suggest 
that  before  we  are  to  be  condemned  in  a  court  of  impeach 
ment  wre  shall  have  some  law  upon  the  subject;  and  I  have 
ventured  to  draw  up  .  .  .  the  draught  of  a  bill  which  I  have 
made  on  article  ten  of  this  impeachment." 

The  reading  of  the  bill  making  penal  the  acts  charged 
in  the  article  was  greeted  by  the  spontaneous  laughter 
of  the  court. 

The  peroration  of  the  address  ought  to  be  given  with 
out  mutilation;  but  we  are  compelled  to  excerpt: 

"But,  says  the  gentleman  who  last  spoke  on  behalf  of 
the  managers,  he  tried  to  defeat  pacification  and  restora 
tion.  I  deny  it  in  the  sense  in  which  he  presented  it— 
that  is,  as  a  criminal  act,  Here,  too,  he  followed  precedent 
and  trod  the  path  on  which  were  the  footprints  of  Lincoln, 
and  which  was  bright  with  the  radiance  of  his  divine  utter 
ance,  'Charity  for  all,  and  malice  toward  none.'  He  was 
eager  for  pacification.  He  thought  that  the  war  was  ended. 
It  seemed  so.  The  drums  were  all  silent ;  the  arsenals  were 
all  shut;  the  roar  of  the  cannon  had  died  away  to  the  last 
reverberations ;  the  army  was  disbanded ;  not  a  single  enemy 
confronted  us  in  the  field.  Ah,  he  was  too  eager,  too  for 
giving,  too  kind.  The  hand  of  conciliation  was  stretched 
out  to  him  and  he  took  it.  It  may  be  he  should  have  put 


THE    TRIAL  479 

it  away,  but  was  it  a  crime  to  take  it  ?  Kindness,  forgiv- 
ness  a  crime  ?  Kindness  a  crime  ?  Kindness  is  omnipotent 
for  good,  more  powerful  than  gunpowder  or  cannon.  Kind 
ness  is  statesmanship.  Kindness  is  the  high  statesmanship 
of  heaven  itself.  The  thunders  of  Sinai  do  but  terrify  and 
distract ;  alone  they  accomplish  little ;  it  is  the  kindness  of 
Calvary  that  subdues  and  pacifies. 

"What  shall  I  say  of  this  man?  He  is  no  theorist;  he 
is  no  reformer.  I  have  looked  over  his  life.  He  has  ever 
walked  in  beaten  paths,  and  by  the  light  of  the  Constitu 
tion.  The  mariner,  tempest-tossed  in  mid-sea,  does  not 
more  certainly  turn  to  his  star,  for  guidance  than  does  this 
man  in  trial  and  difficulty  to  the  star  of  the  Constitution. 
He  loves  the  Constitution.  It  has  been  the  study  of  his 
life.  He  is  not  learned  and  scholarly,  like  many  of  you; 
he  is  not  a  man  of  many  ideas  or  of  much  speculation ;  but 
by  a  law  of  the  mind  he  is  only  the  truer  to  that  he  does 
know.  He  is  a  patriot,  second  to  no  one  of  you  in  the 
measure  of  his  patriotism.  He  loves  his  country.  He 
may  be  full  of  error ;  I  will  not  canvass  now  his  views ;  but 
he  loves  his  country.  He  has  the  courage  to  clef  end  it ; 
and  I  believe  to  die  for  it  if  need  be.  His  courage  and 
his  patriotism  are  not  without  illustration.  .  .  .  How  his 
voice  rang  out  in  this  hall  in  the  hour  of  alarm  for  the  good 
cause,  and  in  denunciation  of  the  rebellion.  But  he  did 
not  remain  here;  it  was  a  pleasant,  honorable,  safe,  easy 
position ;  but  he  was  wanted  for  a  more  difficult  and  ardu 
ous  and  perilous  service.  He  faltered  not  but  entered  upon 
it.  That  was  a  trial  of  his  courage  and  patriotism  of  which 
some  of  you  who  now  sit  in  judgment  on  more  than  his 
life  know  nothing.  I  have  often  thought  that  those  who 
dwelt  at  the  north,  safely  distant  from  the  collision  and 
strife  of  the  war,  knew  but  little  of  its  actual  and  trying 
dangers.  We  who  lived  on  the  border  know  more.  Our 


480  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

horizon  was  always  red  with  its  flames;  and  it  sometimes 
burned  so  near  us  that  we  could  feel  the  heat  of  it  upon 
the  out-stretched  hand.  But  he  was  wanted  for  greater 
peril,  and  went  into  the  very  furnace  of  the  Avar,  and  there 
served  his  country  long  and  well.  .  .  . 

"And  it  seems  hard,  it  seems  cruel,  senators,  that  he 
should  be  dragged  here  as  a  criminal,  or  that  any  one  who 
served  his  country  and  bore  himself  well  and  bravely 
through  that  trying  ordeal  should  be  condemned  upon  mis 
erable  technicalities. 

"If  he  has  committed  any  gross  crime,  shocking  alike 
and  indiscriminately  the  entire  public  mind,  then  condemn 
him;  but  he  has  rendered  service  to  the  country  which 
entitles  him  to  kind  and  respectful  consideration.  He  has 
precedents  for  everything  he  has  done,  and  what  excellent 
precedents !  The  voices  of  the  great  dead  come  to  us  from 
the  grave  sanctioning  his  course.  All  our  past  history 
approves  it.  How  can  you  single  out  this  man,  in  this  con 
dition  of  things,  and  brand  him  before  the  world,  put  your 
brand  of  infamy  upon  him  because  he  made  an  ad  interim 
appointment  for  a  day,  and  possibly  may  have  made  a  mis 
take  in  attempting  to  remove  Stanton?  I  can  at  a  glance 
put  my  eye  upon  senators  here  who  would  not  endure  the 
position  which  he  occupied.  You  do  not  think  it  is  right 
yourselves.  You  framed  this  civil  tenure  law  to  give  each 
President  his  own  cabinet,  and  yet  his  whole  crime  is  that 
he  wants  peace  and  harmony  in  his." 

As  the  unassuming  orator,  faint  from  the  illness  he 
so  far  had  mastered,  sank  into  his  seat,  a  wave  of  ad 
miration  swept  over  the  court  and  the  audience,  thence 
to  roll  on  to  the  farthest  borders  of  the  republic  and 
make  the  hitherto  unknown  name  of  Groesbeck  familiar 


THE    TRIAL  481 

as  a  household  word.  Well  might  that  stern  old  Cato— 
Stevens — say  of  him:  "The  gentleman  in  his  perora 
tion  on  Saturday  implored  the  sympathy  of  the  Senate 
with  all  the  elegance  and  pathos  of  a  Roman  senator 
pleading  for  virtue ;  and  it  is  to  be  feared  that  his  grace 
and  eloquence  turned  the  attention  of  the  Senate  upon 
the  orator  rather  than  upon  the  accused. ' ' 

Stevens,  in  fact,  followed  him,  resolute  to  play  his 
part  in  the  drama  to  the  end  in  spite  of  his  pitiable  state 
of  physical  infirmity.  He  stood  a  few  minutes  reading 
his  address  until  he  was  forced  to  take  a  seat,  and  in 
this  position  continued  to  read  for  about  a  half -hour 
when,  his  voice  becoming  too  weak  to  be  heard,  Butler 
concluded  the  reading.  So  indomitable  a  resolve  we 
may  be  sure  did  not  spring  from  the  mere  love  of  dis 
play—of  which  there  was  not  a  grain  in  his  composition. 
Like  an  Indian  warrior  incapacitated  by  age  for  the 
war-path,  he  was  not  to  be  deprived  of  his  share  in  the 
torturing  of  the  captive.  The  ruler  of  the  dominant 
faction  of  his  party,  he  must  do  his  best  to  keep  weak- 
backed  senators  in  line  by  the  terrors  of  his  scorn.. 
Besides,  he  had  an  article  he  called  his  own  to  defend, 

"I  shall  discuss  but  a  single  article,"  he,  therefore, 
opened,  'kthe  one  that  was  finally  adopted  upon  my  earnest 
solicitation,  and  which,  if  proved,  I  considered  then,  and 
still  consider,  as  quite  sufficient  for  the  ample  conviction 
of  the  distinguished  respondent  and  for  his  removal  from 
office,  which  is  the  only  legitimate  object  for  which  this 
impeachment  could  be  instituted." 

As  there  was  to  be  "no  personal  punishment"  "it 
is  apparent  that  no  crime  containing  malignant  or  in- 
31 


482  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

dictable  offences  higher  than  misdemeanors  was  neces 
sary  either  to  be  alleged  or  proved.  If  the  respondent 
was  shown  to  be  abusing  his  official  trust  to  the  injury 
of  the  people  .  .  .  the  true  mode  of  dealing  with  him 
was  to  impeach  him  .  .  .  and  thus  remove  him  from 
the  office  which  he  was  abusing."  "What  does  it 
matter,  then,  what  the  motive  of  the  respondent  might 
be!"  "Mere  mistake  of  intention,  if  persevered  in 
after  proper  warning  ...  is  quite  sufficient  to  warrant 
the  removal  of  the  officer."  Nevertheless,  he  charged 
the  President  with  "the  foul  offence"  of  "misprision 
of  official  perjury" —which  at  least  sounds  like  a  high 
crime.  It  consisted  in  the  breaking  of  his  official  oath 
by  obstructing  the  execution  of  the  civil  tenure  act; 
and  the  peculiar  felicity  of  the  article  was  that  it  let 
in  the  letter  of  the  President  to  General  Grant  which 
Stevens  insisted  established  the  offence. 

"Whichever  of  these  gentlemen  may  have  lost  his  mem 
ory,  and  found  in  lieu  of  the  truth  the  vision  which  issues 
from  the  Ivory  Gate — though  who  can  hesitate  to  choose 
between  the  words  of  a  gallant  soldier,  and  the  pettifogging 
of  a  political  trickster— is  wholly  immaterial,  so  far  as  the 
charge  against  the  President  is  concerned.  That  charge  is, 
that  the  President  did  attempt  to  prevent  the  due  execu 
tion  of  the  tenure  of  office  law  by  entangling  the  General 
in  the  arrangement;  and  unless  both  the  President  and  the 
General  have  lost  their,  memory  and  mistaken  the  truth 
with  regard  to  the  promises  with  each  other,  then  this 
charge  is  made  out." 

But  it  was  the  faintheartedness  of  certain  senators 
that  this  one  of  the  managers  mainly  feared,  and  for 


THE    TRIAL  483 

this  reason  he  waved  that  resolution  of  their  own,  con 
demnatory  of  the  President,  in  terrorem  over  their 
heads : 

"And  now  this  offspring  of  assassination  turns  upon  the 
Senate,  who  have  thus  rebuked  him  in  a  constitutional  man 
ner,  and  bids  them  defiance.  How  can  he  escape  the  just 
vengeance  of  the  law?  Wretched  man,  standing  at  bay, 
surrounded  by  a  cordon  of  living  men,  each  with  the  axe 
of  an  executioner  uplifted  for  his  just  punishment.  Every 
senator  now  trying  him,  except  such  as  had  already  adopted 
his  policy,  voted  for  this  same  resolution,  pronouncing  his 
solemn  doom.  AVill  any  of  them  vote  for  his  acquittal  on 
the  ground  of  "its  unconstitutionally  ?  I  know  that  sena 
tors  would  do  any  necessary  act  if  indorsed  by  an  honest 
conscience  or  an  enlightened  public  opinion;  but  neither 
for  the  sake  of  the  President  nor  any  one  else  would  one 
of  them  suffer  himself  to  be  tortured  on  the  gibbet  of 
everlasting  obloquy.  How  long  and  dark  would  be  the 
track  of  infamy  which  must  mark  his  name,  and  that  of 
his  posterity !  Nothing  is  therefore  more  certain  than  that 
it  requires  no  gift  of  prophecy  to  predict  the  fate  of  this 
unhappy  victim." 

It  is  unnecessary  to  review  the  argument  of  man 
ager  Williams  who  followed  Stevens,  because,  out 
side  of  his  exposition  of  the  Stanton  proviso  already 
given,  it  was  but  an  expansion  of  the  arguments  of 
his  speech  explanatory  of  the  Tenure  bill  which  he  in 
troduced  in  the  House,  and  a  repetition  of  the  charges 
made  in  the  majority  report  on  the  first  Impeachment, 
of  which  he  was  the  author.  Of  all  the  addresses  made 
on  this  trial,  his  was  the  most  ornate  in  diction  and  meta- 


484  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

phorical  in  style,  and,  in  its  description  of  the  enormity 
of  the  defendant's  guilt  and  its  personal  assaults 
upon  Andrew  Johnson,  it  was  more  hyperbolical  and 
more  bitter  even  than  Mr.  Boutwell  's.  Of  all  the  man 
agers,  he  was  the  only  one  who  ventured  to  cast  doubt 
upon  the  patriotic  disinterestedness  with  which  Andrew 
Johnson  took  his  stand  against  secession.  "I  will  not 
stop  to  inquire  whether  his  resistance  to  the  hegira  of 
the  southern  senators  was  not  merely  a  question,  him 
self  being  the  witness,  as  to  the  propriety  and  wisdom 
of  such  a  step  at  that  particular  time."  Against  the 
Cabinet  he  seemed  to  cherish  a  special  animosity— "  the 
trusted  counsellors"  who  "so  largely  comforted  and 
encouraged"  the  President  "through  all  his  manifold 
usurpations."  "These  gentlemen,"  he  sneered,  "have 
not  been  allowed  to  prove  their  opinion  and  advice.  It 
may  be  guessed,  I  suppose,  without  damage  to  our  case, 
that  if  allowed,  they  would  have  proved  it."  He 
regretted  that  "the  public  curiosity  has  been  balked  by 
the  denial  of  the  high  privilege  of  listening  to  the 
luminous  expositions  of  these  learned  Thebans."  He 
stigmatized  the  institution  as  "this  illegitimate  body, 
this  excrescence,  this  mere  fungus,  born  of  decay ' ' ; 
and  Johnson's  Cabinet  in  particular  as  "a  mere  cabal 
which  looked  for  all  the  world  like  some  dark  conclave 
of  conspirators  plotting  against  the  liberties  of  the 
people";  "mere  beds  of  justice"  to  register  the  de 
crees  of  "an  imperious  and  self  willed  man  like  the 
present  Executive."  Judge  of  the  condition  of  the 
brain  of  an  orator  who,  under  the  actual  circumstances 
of  this  case,  could  address  to  the  High  Court  of  Im- 


THE    TRIAL  485 

peachment  engaged  in  the  trial  of  the  Chief  Magistrate 
of  the  republic,  an  exhortation  like  the  following: 

''If  you  acquit  him,  you  affirm  all  his  imperial  preten 
sions  and  decide  that  no  amount  of  usurpation  will  ever 
bring  a  Chief  Magistrate  to  justice,  because  you  will  have 
laid  down  at  his  feet  your  own  high  dignity,  along  with 
your  double  function  as  legislators  and  advisers,  which  will 
be  followed  of  course  by  that  of  your  other,  I  will  not  say 
greater,  office  as  judges.  It  will  be  a  victory  over  you  and 
us  which  will  stir  the  heart  of  rebeldom  with  joy,  while 
your  dead  soldiers  will  turn  uneasily  in  their  graves;  a 
victory  to  be  celebrated  by  the  exultant  ascent  of  Andrew 
Johnson  to  the  Capitol,  like  the  conqueror  in  a  Roman 
triumph,  dragging  not  captive  kings  but  a  captive  Senate 
at  his  chariot  wheels,  and  to  be  crowned  by  his  reentry  into 
the  possession  of  that  department  of  the  government  over 
which  this  great  battle  has  been  fought.  It  is  shown  in 
evidence  that  he  has  already  intimated  that  he  would  wait 
on  your  action  here  for  that  purpose.  But  is  this  all? 
Hug  not  to  your  bosoms,  I  entreat  you,  the  fond  illusion 
that  it  is  all  to  end  there.  It  is  but  the  beginning  of  the 
end.  If  his  pretensions  are  sustained,  the  next  head  that 
will  fall  as  a  propitiatory  offering  to  the  conquered  South, 
will  be  that  of  the  great  chief  who  humbled  the  pride  of 
the  chivalry  by  beating  down  its  serried  battalions  in  the 
field,  and  dragging  its  traitor  standard  in  the  dust;  to  be 
followed  by  the  return  of  the  rebel  office-holders,  and  a  gen 
eral  convulsion  of  the  state  which  shall  cast  loose  your 
reconstructed  laws,  and  deliver  over  the  whole  theater  of 
past  disturbances  to  anarchy  and  ruin." 

Williams  closed  about  the  time  of  the  usual  recess; 
and  the  expectation  that  Evarts  would  follow  crowded 


486  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  Senate  chamber  with  an  eager  audience.  They  were 
compelled  to  wait,  however,  while  Butler  fell  foul  of 
Nelson  on  account  of  his  statement  of  the  Alta  Vela 
matter,  which  he  stigmatized  as  an  "insinuating  cal 
umny,  "  "injurious  to  some  of  the  managers  and  other 
gentlemen,  members  of  the  House,  who  have  no  oppor 
tunity  to  be  heard. "  He  averred  that  "his  opinion," 
as  he  called  his  letter,  "must  have  been  given  in  the 
early  part  of  February";  certainly  before  the  act  was 
committed  by  Andrew  Johnson  which  brought  on  his 
impeachment.  Nelson  rose,  in  great  heat,  to  justify  his 
introduction  of  a  subject  so  foreign  to  the  trial  by 
pointing  out  the  previous  allusion  to  it  by  Mr.  Boutwell : 
"It  was  for  that  reason  and  for  no  other  that  I  spoke 
of  it,  not  with  any  desire  to  make  an  assault  upon  the 
managers."  And,  then,  hurried  on  by  his  wrath,  he 
turned  on  Butler : 

"I  treated  the  gentleman  on  the  other  side  with  courtesy 
and  kindness.  He  has  rewarded  me  with  insult  and  with 
outrage  in  the  presence  of  the  American  Senate.  It  will 
be  for  you,  senators,  to  judge  whose  demeanor  is  most 
proper  before  you.  that  of  the  honorable  gentleman  who 
foully  and  falsely  charges  me  with  insinuating  calumny, 
or  my  course  in  vindicating  the  President  of  the  United 
States  in  the  discharge  of  my  professional  duty  here.  So 
far  as  any  question  that  the  gentleman  desires  to  make  of 
a  personal  character  with  me  is  concerned,  this  is  not  the 
place  to  make  it.  Let  him  make  it  elsewhere,  if  he  desires 
to  do  it." 

Being  promptly  called  to  order,  the  counsel  begged 
pardon  of  the  Senate,  proceeded  with  his  explanation 


THE    TRIAL  487 

i 

and,  insisting  that  the  date  of  the  original  Butler  letter 
was  March  ninth,  1868,  and  promising  to  bring  all  the 
original  letters  into  court,  asked  permission  to  lay  them 
before  the  Senate.  Manager  Logan  rose  and  stated  that 
he  "signed  the  letter  long  before  there  was  anything 
thought  of  impeachment."  This  closed  the  incident 
for  the  day,  but  we  may  as  well  follow  it  to  its  end.  The 
next  morning,  Sunnier  sent  an  order  to  the  chair  declar 
ing  that  Mr.  Nelson  for  using  language  "intended  to 
provoke  a  duel"  "justly  deserved  the  disapprobation 
of  the  Senate" ;  which  Sherman's  objection  carried  over 
the  day.  Despite  Simmer's  strenuous  protest,  Nelson 
was  allowed  to  produce  and  file  the  letters,  among  them 
Butler's,  which,  notwithstanding  his  and  Logan's  dis 
claimer,  bore  date  as  of  the  ninth  of  March.  The  next 
day,  Sumner's  resolution  coming  up,  Reverdy  Johnson 
moved  to  lay  it  on  the  table ;  and  before  taking  the  vote 
senator  Anthony  inquired  of  the  counsel  "if,  in  the  re 
mark"  he  had  made,  "it  was  his  intention  to  challenge 
the  manager  to  mortal  combat  ? ' '  Nelson  replied : 

''I  cannot  say  I  had  the  idea  of  a  duel  particularly  in 
my  mind,  as  I  am  not  a  duelist  by  profession ;  but,  never 
theless,  my  idea  was  that  I  would  answer  the  gentleman 
in  any  way  in  which  he  chose  to  call  upon  me  for  it.  I 
did  not  intend  to  claim  any  exemption  on  account  of  age 
or  any  exemption  on  account  of  other  things  that  are  ap 
parent  to  the  Senate.  That  was  all  that  I  meant  to  signify, 
and  I  hope  the  Senate  will  recollect  the  circumstances  under 
which  this  thing  was  done. ' ' 

So  manly  a  frankness,  while  it  only  hardened  Sumner 
who    demanded    that    his    resolution    be    read    again, 


488  IMPEACHMENT   OF   PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

touched  the  hearts  of  the  majority  and  the  order  was 
laid  on  the  table  by  the  vote  of  35  to  10. 

From  this  unpleasant  episode  we  now  turn  to  the 
address  which  it  interrupted.  William  M.  Evarts  had 
come  to  Washington  heralded  as  one  of  the  greatest 
lawyers  of  the  state  of  New  York ;  and  this  high  repu 
tation  he  well  sustained  in  the  incidental  discussions 
during  the  trial.  Since  the  defeat  of  William  H. 
Seward,  his  favourite  for  the  presidential  nomination  in 
1860,  he  had  mingled  but  little  in  politics.  The  candi 
date  of  the  Seward  wing  for  United  States  senator  in 
opposition  to  Horace  Greeley  when  the  contest  resulted 
in  the  election  of  Ira  Harris,  he  had  made  no  nearer 
approach  to  federal  affairs.  All  eyes  were  turned  on  his 
tall,  slender  figure  as  he  arose  to  address  the  court. 
Something  extraordinary  in  the  way  of  argument  and 
eloquence  was  expected  from  him,  and,  in  certain  re 
spects,  his  auditors  were  not  disappointed.  Although 
tied  to  the  ground  by  the  essential  pettiness  of  the  cause 
he  was  engaged  in,  the  speech  of  Evarts  may  be 
said  at  times  to  soar.  It  reaches  almost,  if  it  does  not 
quite,  the  classic  heights.  One  superficial  but  all-per 
vading  fault  it  had — the  inveterate  proclivity  of  the 
speaker  to  entangle  himself  in  the  involutions  of  his  long- 
drawn-out  sentences.  With  this  drawback,  however, 
and  although  it  was  the  longest  of  all  the  arguments— oc 
cupying  three  days  in  its  delivery — the  speech  is  entitled 
to  be  called  a  great  oration.  Evarts,  it  is  true,  was  pre 
eminently  a  lawyer.  He  undoubtedly  belonged  to  that 
class  of  men  whom  Mr.  Boutwell  lunged  at  as  "  attorneys 
whose  practice  of  the  law  had  sharpened  but  not  en- 


THE    TRIAL  489 

larged  their  intellects";— a  sneer  which  the  counsel 
made  him  smart  for.  But  if  Evarts  was  a  lawyer, 
he  was  a  lawyer  of  the  philosophic  mind.  His  intellect 
was  acutely  penetrative,  able  to  ferret  through  the  most 
intervoluted  complications  of  a  case,  traverse  the  sharp 
est  edge  of  technical  law  and  pierce  the  best-laid  scheme 
of  logic  to  its  central  fallacy.  But,  at  the  same  time, 
it  was  comprehensive  enough  to  grasp  the  fundamental 
principles  which  elucidate  concrete  complications,  show 
subtlety  sometimes  to  be  wisdom,  and  illumine  the  nar 
rowest  cause  by  viewing  it  in  the  light  cast  by  the 
massive  forces  with  which  it  is  environed.  He  was  able 
on  the  present  occasion,  therefore,  not  only  to  wring  the 
life  out  of  the  record  prosecution  to  its  minutest  ex 
tremities  ;  but  to  dissolve  it  into  its  essential  nullity  by 
re-immersing  it  into  the  heated  political  atmosphere 
whence  it  arose. 

"All  the  political  power  of  the  United  States  is 
here ' ' ;  with  this  stroke  he  began.  The  House  of  Repre 
sentatives,  the  President,  the  Senate,  the  Chief  Justice. 
But  all  at  some  disadvantage.  The  House  and  the  Sen 
ate,  owing  to  rebellion,  deprived  of  the  full  attendance  of 
members.  The  Executive,  owing  to  assassination,  "in 
the  last  stage  of  its  maintenance  under  mere  constitu 
tional  authority."  "If  the  President  be  condemned 
.  .  .  there  will  be  no  President  of  the  United  States, " 
and  "the  office  sequestered  will  be  discharged  by  a 
member  of  the  body  whose  judgment  sequestered  it.'7 
"The  sober  thoughtful  people  of  this  country,"  "never 
fond  of  pageants,  are  thinking  of  far  other  things  than 
these."  They  are  thinking  of  their  Supreme  Court 


490  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

sent  away  with  its  jurisdiction  cut  off  "by  the  sharp 
edge  of  a  congressional  enactment";  of  their  President 
elected  by  their  voices,  1 1  accused  by  one  branch  of  Con 
gress,  to  be  tried  by  the  other,  his  office  put  in  commis 
sion  and  an  election  ordered";  of  his  oath  "to  preserve, 
protect  and  defend  the  Constitution. "  "  They  are  con 
verts  of  no  theories  of  congressional  omnipotence. 
They  understand  none  of  the  nonsense  of  the  Constitu 
tion  being  superior  to  the  law  except  that  the  law  must 
be  obeyed  and  the  Constitution  not."  "When  they 
hear  that  this  tremendous  enginery  of  impeachment 
.  .  .  has  been  brought  into  play,  that  this  power  which 
has  lain  in  the  Constitution  like  a  sword  in  its  sheath, 
is  now  drawn,  they  wish  to  know  what  the  crime  is  that 
the  President  is  accused  of." 

"They  wish  to  know  whether  the  President  has  betrayed 
our  liberties  or  our  possessions  to  a  foreign  state.  They 
wish  to  know  whether,  he  has  delivered  up  a  fortress  or 
surrendered  a  fleet.  They  wish  to  know  whether  he  has 
made  merchandise  of  the  public  trust  and  turned  authority 
to  private  gain.  And  when  informed  that  none  of  these 
things  are  charged,  imputed,  or  even  declaimed  about,  they 
yet  seek  further  information  and  are  told  that  he  has  re 
moved  a  member  of  his  cabinet." 

They  are  very  familiar  with  removal  from  office. 
Like  the  old  lady  who  cried  out  that  if  you  took  away 
her  "total  depravity"'  you  took  away  her  religion, 
many  of  them  might  say  if  you  take  away  removal  from 
office  you  take  away  their  politics.  ' '  *  How  came  this  to 
be  a  crime  ? '  they  inquire. ' '  Why,  Congress  passed  a 


THE    TRIAL  491 

law  calling  it  a  high  misdemeanour.  The  President  ''has 
removed  or  undertaken  to  remove  a  member  of  his 
Cabinet  and  he  is  to  be  removed  himself  for  that  cause. 
He  undertook  to  make  an  ad  interim  Secretary  of  War, 
and  you  are  to  have  made  for  you  an  ad  interim  Presi 
dent  in  consequence.7'  "  'Was  the  Secretary  of  War 
removed  then V  No;  he  was  not  removed,  he  is  still 
Secretary,  still  in  possession  of  the  department.  'Was 
force  used  ? '  No ;  it  was  all  on  paper  and  all  went  no 
further"  than  making  a  case  for  the  Supreme  Court. 
But  here  Congress  intercepts,  again  prevents  the 
Supreme  Court  "from  interposing  its  serene  judg 
ment"  and  declares  that  the  case  shall  be  determined 
by  process  of  impeachment.  The  people  do  not  see 
why  this  is  not ' '  a  question  between  the  omnipotence  of 
Congress  and  the  supremacy  of  the  Constitution. ' ' 

His  treatment  of  the  argument  of  Butler  that  the 
tribunal  before  him  was  not  a  court  exhibits  a  still  airier 
touch.  "The  intrepid  manager",  "knew  that  the  only 
way  he  could  prevent  his  cause  from  being  turned  out 
of  court  was  to  turn  the  court  out  of  his  cause."  But 
he  does  "not  tell  us  what  this  was,  if  it  was  not  a 
court. ' ' 

"It  is  true  he  said  it  was  a  Senate,  but  that  conveys  no 
idea.  It  is  not  a  Senate  conducting  legislative  business; 
it  is  not  a  Senate  acting  upon  executive  business;  it  is  not 
a  Senate  acting  in  caucus  on  political  affairs ;  and  the  ques 
tion  remains,  if  it  is  not  a  court  what  is  it?" 

He  answers  his  own  question:  "It  is  an  altar  of 
sacrifice  if  it  is  not  an  altar  of  justice"— an  altar 


492  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

erected  to  "the  savage  demon"  of  "party  hate  and 
party  rage." 

* '  If  this  is  not  a  court  it  is  a  scaffold :  and  an  honorable 
manager  (Stevens)  yesterday  told  you  so,  that  each  one  of 
you  brandished  now  a  headsman 's  axe  to  execute  vengeance, 
you  having  tried  the  offender  on  the  night  of  the  21st 
of  February  already." 

"Forensic  discussion"  it  lias  hitherto  been  supposed 
is  the  true  method  of  dealing  with  such  issues  as  the 
present— "a  method  to  penetrate  the  position  and  if 
successful  to  capture  it";  not  "the  Chinese  method 
of  warfare  which  is  the  method  of  concussion  and  con 
sists  of  a  great  braying  of  trumpets,  sounding  of  gongs, 
shouts  and  shrieks  in  the  neighborhood  of  the  opposing 
force."  Manager  Butler  "seems  to  have  repeated  the 
experiment  he  tried  during  the  war." 

"The  air  was  filled  with  epithets,  the  dome  shook  with 
invective.  Wretchedness  and  misery  and  suffering  and 
blood,  not  included  within  the  record,  were  made  the  means 
of  this  explosive  mixture.  And  here  we  are  surviving  the 
concussion,  and  after  all  reduced  to  the  humble  and  homely 
method  of  discussion  which  belongs  to  'attorneys  whose  in 
tellects  have  been  sharpened  but  not  enlarged  by  the  prac 
tice  of  law. '  : 

The  chief  aim  of  the  counsel  in  this  branch  of  his 
argument  was  to  extricate  the  actual  charge  from  the 
political  elements  which  enveloped  it,  to  show  how  in 
trinsically  insignificant  it  was,  and  to  demonstrate  that 
"whatever  else  there  is,  attendant,  appurtenant,  or  in 
the  neighborhood,"  was  "wholly  political,  and  not  the 


THE    TRIAL  493 

subject  of  jurisdiction  in  this  court  or  in  any  court, 
but  only  in  the  great  forum  of  the  popular  judgment. " 

1.  "The    formal    contravention    of    a    statute,"    he 
argues   first,    "could   not   be    an   impeachable   offence 
merely  because  it  was  qualified  by  the  word  'high'  in 
the  penal  section  of  the  act.     You  must  look  at  the 
punishment.     That  could  not  be  a  'high'  crime  which 
Congress  allowed  a  judge  in  his  discretion  to  punish 
by  a  six  cents  fine  or  one  day's  imprisonment."    In  the 
course  of  the  discussion  of  this  section  at  the  time  of 
the  passage  of  the  Tenure-of-office  bill,  Sumner  "sug 
gested  that  it  would  be  well,  at  least,  to  have  a  moderate 
minimum  of  punishment  that  would  secure  something 
like  substance  necessarily  in  the  penal  infliction"— say 
"$1000  or  $500  as  the  lower  limit";  but  Edmunds  and 
Williams  would  have  none  of  it;  Williams  remarking 
that  "this  is  a  mere  offence  created  by  statute"— "not 
involving    moral    turpitude,    but    rather    a    political 
offence. ' ' 

2.  He  showed  that  "in  act,  purpose  and  in  conse 
quence  the  whole  criminality  we  can  attach  to  the  im 
puted  offence  is  a  formal  contravention  of  a  statute. ' ' 

"Up  to  twelve  o'clock  on  February  the  21st,  1868,  the 
President  was  innocent  and  unimpeachable,  and  at  one 
o'clock  on  the  same  day  he  was  guilty  and  impeachable  of 
the  string  of  offences  that  fill  up  all  the  articles  except 
that  devoted  to  the  speeches"  and  the  Emory  article. 

"Nothing  was  done  whatever  except  to  issue  a  paper 
and  have  it  delivered,  which  puts  the  posture  of  the  thing 
in  this  condition  and  nothing  else :  the  Constitution,  we 
will  suppose,  says  that  the  President  has  a  right  to  remove 


494  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  Secretary  of  War;  the  act  of  Congress  says  that  the 
President  shall  not  remove  the  Secretary  of  War ;  the  Presi 
dent  says  'I  will  issue  an  official  order  which  will  raise  the 
same  question  between  my  conduct  and  the  statute  that 
the  statute  raises  between  itself  and  the  Constitution. '  .  .  . 
He  issues  an  order  on  paper  which  is  but  an  assertion  of 
the  Constitution  and  a  denial  of  the  law,  and  that  paper 
has  legal  validity  if  the  Constitution  sustains  it,  and  it  is 
invalid  and  ineffectual,  a  mere  imbelle  telum,  if  the  law 
prohibits  it  and  the  law  is  conformed  to  the  Constitution." 

3.  i  i  All  else  is  political. ' '  And  here  the  counsel  calls 
attention  to  the  actual  condition  of  the  two  contending 
departments  of  the  government.  The  executive  is  not 
filled  by  one  who  has  received  the  suffrage  of  the  people 
for  that  office  and  on  this  account  ' i  discord,  dislocation, 
deficiency,  difficulty  show  themselves."  And  "this 
weakness  of  the  Presidency  is  encountered  in  the  present 
state  of  affairs  by  an  extraordinary  development  of 
party  strength  in  Congress7'— a  three-fourths  majority 
in  both  Houses.  The  ' '  three  barriers  against  the  will  of 
Congress" —the  requirement  of  a  two-thirds  vote  to 
expel  a  member,  to  override  a  veto,  to  convict  and  re 
move  the  President— are  broken  down.  The  abnormal, 
unbalanced  condition  of  these  two  great  departments 
furnishes  "ground  to  pause  and  consider";— will  you 
precipitate  the  struggle  to  its  fatal  pitch— involving 
1 1  the  greater  and  higher  question  "  "  whether  it  is  in  the 
power  of  a  written  Constitution  to  draw  lines  of  separa 
tion  and  put  up  buttresses  of  defence  between  the  co 
ordinate  branches  of  this  government?" 

* '  And  with  that  question  settled  .  .  .  that  one  can  devour, 
and  having  the  power,  will  devour  the  other,  then  the  bal- 


THE    TRIAL  495 

ances  of  the  American  Constitution  are  lost  and  lost  for 
ever.  Nobody  can  reinstate  on  paper  what  has  once  been 
struck  down  in  fact.  Mankind  are  governed  by  instances, 
not  by  resolutions. " 

It  is  "  the  political  situation  which  forms  the  staple  of 
the  pressure  on  the  part  of  the  managers  to  make  out  a 
crime,  a  fault,  a  danger  that  should  enlist  the  terrible 
machinery  of  impeachment  and  condemnation." 

"If  the  honorable  managers  will  go  back  to  the  source  of 
their  authority,  if  they  will  obtain  what  was  once  denied 
them,  a  general  and  open  political  charge,  it  may,  for 
aught  I  know,  be  maintainable  in  law ;  it  may  be  main 
tainable  in  fact ;  but  then  it  would  be  brought  here ;  it 
would  be  written  down;  its  dimensions  wrould  be  known 
and  understood ;  its  weight  would  be  estimated ;  the  answer 
could  be  made/' 

The  counsel  neatly  turned  the  laugh  on  Mr.  Bout- 
well's  "astronomical"  mode  of  punishment.  Many 
professors,  he  gravely  affirmed,  are  wholly  ignorant  of 
any  such  facts  as  the  manager  describes. 

"But  nevertheless,  while  some  of  his  honorable  coPeagues 
were  paying  attention  to  an  unoccupied  and  unappropriated 
island  on  the  surface  of  the  sea,  Mr.  Manager  Boutw^ell, 
more  ambitious,  had  discovered  an  untenanted  and  unap 
propriated  region  in  the  skies,  reserved,  he  would  have  us 
think,  in  the  final  councils  of  the  Almighty,  as  the  place 
of  punishment  for  convicted  and  deposed  American  Presi 
dents. 

"At  first  I  thought  that  his  mind  had  become  so  'en 
larged'  that  it  was  not  'sharp'  enough  to  discover  the  Con 
stitution  had  limited  the  punishment;  but  on  reflection  I 


496  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

saw  that  he  was  as  legal  and  logical  as  he  was  ambitious 
and  astronomical,  for  the  Constitution  has  said  'removal 
from  office, '  and  put  no  limit  to  the  distance  of  the  removal, 
so  that  it  may  be,  without  shedding  a  drop  of  his  blood, 
or  taking  a  penny  of  his  property,  or  confining  his  limbs, 
instant  removal  from  office  and  transportation  to  the  skies. ' * 

But,  as  nobody  knows  where  the  space  is  but  the 
manager  himself,  ' l  he  is  the  necessary  deputy  to  execute 
the  judgment  of  the  court.'7  And  the  counsel  draws  a 
picture  of  "the  honorable  and  astronomical  manager," 
"with  the  President  fastened  to  his  broad  and  strong 
shoulders, ' '  taking  his  flight  from  the  top  of  the  capitol, 
and  the  two  Houses  of  Congress  and  all  the  people 
shouting  "Sic  itur  ad  astral"  As  "he  passes  through 
the  constellations,"  "what  thinks  Bootes  as  he  drives 
his  dogs  up  the  zenith  in  their  race  of  sidereal  fire?" 
(sic). 

Evarts'  second  full  day  was  chiefly  devoted  to  an 
exploration  of  the  controversy  over  i  i  the  allocation ' '  of 
the  power  of  removal;  and,  in  doing  so,  he  opened 
up  an  entirely  new  vein,  digging  deeper  than  any  of 
the  speakers  before  him.  The  inroad  upon  the  solid 
mass  of  executive  power  vested  in  the  President, 
made  by  the  association  of  the  Senate  in  the  power 
of  appointment,  he  showed,  was  due,  not,  as  had  been 
taken  for  granted,  to  any  jealousy  of  the  executive,  but 
to  the  memorable  "contest  in  the  body  of  the  Conven 
tion"  over  "the  balance  between  the  weight  of  numbers 
in  the  people  and  the  equality  of  the  States. ' '  And  here 
it  was  that  those  "opinions  of  Roger  Sherman,"  which 
Mr.  Boutwell  had  challenged  his  descendant  to  confute, 


THE    TRIAL  497 

"had  their  origin."  Sherman's  "firm  maintenance  of 
the  equality  of  the  States,"  it  was,  that  impelled  him 
to  insist  that  participation  in  appointments  should  be 
accorded  to  the  Senate;  while  his  opponents  thought 
this  "too  great  a  subtraction  from  the  sum  of  executive 
power. "  John  Adams  "died  in  the  conviction"  that 
this  participation  "would  be  the  point  on  which  the 
Constitution  would  fall."  "When  you  add  to  that  this 
change  which  gives  to  the  Senate  a  voice  in  the  removal 
from  office  .  .  .  you  change  wholly  the  question  of  the 
Constitution."  "You  break  down  at  once  the  balance 
between  the  executive  and  legislative  powers,  .  .  .  you 
break  down  the  federal  election  of  President  at  once  and 
commit  to  the  equality  of  States  the  partition  and  dis 
tribution  of  the  executive  power  of  the  country. ' ' 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  however,  "the  power  of  removal 
is  and  always  has  been  claimed  and  exercised  by  the 
Executive  of  this  government  separately  and  independ 
ently  of  the  Senate ' ' ;  says  the  counsel,  once  more  unfold 
ing  a  novel  view  of  the  subject.  Until  the  Tenure  act 
"the  actual  power  of  removal  by  the  Senate  never  has 
been  claimed."  Nor  does  this  act  even  "assume  in 
terms  to  give  the  Senate  a  participation  in  the  distinct 
and  separate  act— the  removal  from  office."  "The 
scheme  of  the  law  is— to  change  the  tenure  of  office,  so 
that  removability  as  a  separate  and  independent  act  .  .  . 
is  obliterated  from  the  powers  of  this  government," 
During  recess  a  delinquent  officer  may  be  suspended,  not 
removed.  During  the  session  of  the  Senate,  a  delin 
quent  cannot  even  be  suspended.  The  only  way  an  offi 
cer  can  be  removed,  no  matter  under  what  "stress  of 

32 


IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

public  necessity,"  is  by  a  ;' complete  appointment  of  a 
successor  concurred  in  by  the  Senate  and  made  operative 
by  the  new  appointee  going  into  and  qualifying  himself 
in  the  office. ' ' 

"The  legislative  construction  of  1789,  as  worked  into 
the  bones  of  the  government  by  the  indurating  process  of 
practice  and  exercise/'— the  counsel  concludes,— "the  doc 
trine  that  finally  triumphed,  was  this :  primarily  the  whole 
business  of  official  subordinate  executive  action  is  a  part 
of  the  executive  function;  that  being  attributed  in  solido 
to  the  President,  we  look  to  exceptions  to  serve  the  turn 
and  precise  measure  of  their  own  definition,  and  discard 
that  falsest  principle  of  reasoning  in  regard  to  laws  or  in 
regard  to  conduct,  that  exception  is  to  breed  exception 
or  amplification  of  exception.  The  general  mass  is  to  lose 
what  is  subtracted  from  it  by  exception,  and  the  general 
mass  is  to  remain  with  its  whole  weight  not  thus  separately 
and  definitely  reduced.  When  therefore  these  statesmen 
said  you  find  the  freedom  of  executive  action  and  its  solid 
authority  reduced  by  an  exception  of  advice  and  consent 
in  appointment,  you  must  understand  that  that  is  the  limit 
of  the  exception,  and  the  executive  power  in  all  other  re 
spects  stands  unimpaired." 

The  last  consideration  the  counsel  advanced  in  sup 
port  of  "the  view  that  all  here  that  possesses  weight 
and  dignity  is  political'  and  not  criminal  or  suitable  for 
judicial  cognizance,-"  was,  singularly  enough,  the  very 
thing  which  the  managers  held  up  in  the  faces  of  the 
senators  as  a  solemn  pledge  binding  them  to  convict. 
If  by  passing  the  Tenure-of-office  bill  in  the  first  in 
stance,  if  by  passing  it  over  the  veto  of  the  President  in 


THE    TRIAL  499 

the  second  instance,  if,  finally,  by  resolving  that  the 
President  had  no  power  to  remove  Stanton  and  to  ap 
point  Thomas,  senators  had  already  decided  the  matter 
in  dispute  between  two  of  the  departments  of  the  gov 
ernment — what  is  the  true  conclusion?  Surely,  not 
that  they  have  predetermined  the  President's  guilt 
of  "crimes  involving  turpitude  and  personal  delin 
quency!"  No  principle  of  justice  is  more  immutable 
than  these:  "that  no  man  shall  be  a  judge  in  his  own 
cause,  and  that  no  man  shall  be  a  judge  in  a  matter  in 
which  he  has  already  given  judgment."  "You  must 
have  regarded  it  as  a  matter  of  political  action"— "as  a 
matter  that  could  not  possibly  be  brought  before  you  in 
your  judicial  capacity. ' '  As  was  said  ' '  by  the  great  and 
trusted  statesman  of  the  Whig  party"  when  the  Senate 
was  debating  the  resolution  condemnatory  of  President 
Jackson 's  removal  of  the  deposits :  "If  there  was  in  the 
atmosphere  a  whisper,  if  there  was  in  the  future  a 
menace  that  impeachment  was  to  come,  debate  must  be 
silenced  and  the  resolution  suppressed."  "The  other 
principle  is  equally  contravened."  "You  are  to  pass 
judgment"  on  "the  partition  of  the  offices  of  the  gov 
ernment  between  the  President  and  yourselves.  The 
very  matter  of  his  fault  is  that  he  claims  them ;  the  very 
matter  of  his  condemnation  is  that  you  have  a  right  to 
them."  You  are  a  court,  "and  yet  you  are  full  of 
politics.  Why!  Because  the  question  is  political;  and 

the  whole  point  of  my  reference  is  as  an  absolute  demon 
stration  that  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  never 
forces  honorable  men  into  a  position  where  they  are  judges 
of  their  own  cause,  or  where  they  have  in  the  course  of  their 


500    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

previous  duties  expressed  a  judgment.  ...  It  is  all  political. 
All  these  thunder-clouds  are  political,  and  it  is  only  this 
little  petty  pattering  of  rain  and  these  infractions  of 
statutes  that  are  personal  or  criminal." 

We  shall  not  follow  the 'counsel  in  his  examination  of 
the  articles  seriatim.  He  takes  them  up  in  reverse  order, 
beginning  with  the  eleventh,  on  which  he  scarcely 
pauses,  and  ending  with  the  first  or  main  article,  of  his 
treatment  of  which  we  have  already  given  a  specimen. 
The  Butler  article  he,  like  Groesbeck,  laughs  out  of 
court.  "It  is  a  novelty  in  this  country  to  try  anybody 
for  making  a  speech."  What  is  to  be  the  standard  of 
propriety!  The  rule  ought  to  work  both  ways— in  the 
legislative  as  well  as  in  the  executive  branch.  In  the 
Senate,  Simmer  calls  the  President  "an  enemy  to  his 
country."  In  the  House,  representatives  Butler  and 
Bingham— now  brothers  in  the  same  cause— belabour 
eacli  other  over  Jefferson  Davis,  Fort  Fisher  and  Mrs. 
Surratt ;  and  he  adds : 

"I  am  not  entirely  sure  that  when  you  make  allowances 
for  the  difference  between  an  ex  tcmporc  speech  of  the 
President  to  a  mob,  and  a  written,  prepared,  and  printed 
speech  to  this  court,  by  an  honorable  manager,  but  that 
there  may  be  some  little  trace  of  the  same  impropriety  in 
that  figure  of  argument  which  presented  Mr.  Carpenter  to 
your  observation  as  an  inspired  painter,  whose  pencil  was 
guided  by  the  hand  of  Providence  to  the  apportionment  of 
Mr.  Stanton  to  perpetual  bliss,  and  of  Governor  Seward 
to  eternal  pains." 

We  should  like  to  linger  over  one  or  two  delightful 
turns  of  argument,  e.  y.,  where  the  counsel,  observing 


THE    TRIAL  501 

that  Stanton  holds  under  his  commission  as  well  as 
under  the  act,  points  out  that  the  President  hy  revoking 
his  commission— which  was  all  in  fact  he  did— ought 
to  have  the  right  to  force  him  to  fall  back  on  his  naked 
statutory  title ;  but  we  forbear  and  hasten  to  the  closing 
words  of  the  orator  respecting  Andrew  Johnson  himself. 

"And  I  ask  you  to  notice  that,  bred  in  a  school  of  Ten 
nessee  democratic  politics,  he  had  always  learned  to  believe 
that  the  Constitution  must  and  should  be  preserved ;  and 
I  ask  you  to  recognize  that  when  it  was  in  peril,  and  all 
men  south  of  a  certain  line  took  up  arms  against  it,  and  all 
men  north  ought  to  have  taken  up  arms  in  politics  or  war 
for  it,  he  loved  the  country  and  the  Constitution  more  than 
he  loved  his  section  and  the  glories  that  were  promised  by 
the  evil  spirits  of  the  rebellion.  .  .  . 

"He  is  no  rhetorician  and  no  theorist,  no  sophist  and  no 
philosopher.  The  Constitution  is  to  him  the  only  political 
book  that  he  reads.  The  Constitution  is  to  him  the  only 
great  authority  which  he  obeys.  His  mind  may  not  expand ; 
his  views  may  not  be  so  plastic  as  those  of  many  of  his 
countrymen;  he  may  not  think  we  have  outlived  the  Con 
stitution,  and  he  may  not  be  able  to  embrace  the  Declara 
tion  of  Independence  as  superior  and  predominant  to  it. 
But  to  the  Constitution  he  adheres.  For  it  and  under  it 
he  has  served  the  State  from  boyhood  up— labored  for, 
loved  it.  For  it  he  has  stood  in  arms  against  the  frowns 
of  a  Senate;  for  it  he  has  stood  in  arms  against  the  rebel 
lious  forces  of  the  enemy ;  and  to  it  he  has  bowed  three  times 
a  day  with  a  more  than  eastern  devotion." 

When  the  court  reassembled  after  the  recess  that 
followed  Evarts's  speech,  it  was  observed  that  Stan- 


502   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

beiy  was  present.  Up  to  the  eleventh  day  of  the  trial 
the  ex- Attorney-General  had  borne  the  chief  burden 
of  the  defence— he  being  not  only  the  senior  in  years 
of  his  associates  but,  by  reason  of  the  office  he  had  re 
signed  to  come  amongst  them,  the  closest  to  the  Presi 
dent.  On  that  day— more  than  a  fortnight  ago— he  was 
stricken  down  by  illness,  and,  although  most  anxious 
to  be  present,  had  not  been  well  enough  since ;  his 
share  of  duty  devolving  upon  Evarts.  There  was  no 
public'  expectation  that  he  would  be  able  to  take  part 
personally  in  the  final  argument,  and,  consequently, 
there  was  a  buzz  of  astonishment  when  it  was  dis 
covered  that  he  had  rallied  sufficiently  to  drag  his  limbs 
to  the  Senate  chamber.  Stanbery  was  a  remarkably 
handsome  man  of  imposing  presence.  As  a  lawyer 
he  stood  in  the  front  rank  of  his  profession,  and  he 
carried  his  preeminence  with  dignity  and  grace.  He 
possessed  a  persuasive  manner,  his  voice  was  musical, 
and  his  elocution  finished.  To  the  Republican  senators 
he  was  an  object  of  special  disfavour  because  of  his 
official  opinions ;  and  his  ambition  to  sit  upon  the  bench 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  they  had  once  taken  pains  to 
thwart.  But,  when  with  signs  of  weakness  and  distress 
he  raised  himself  to  speak  on  this  occasion,  a  sympa 
thetic  stillness  descended  on  Senate  and  audience ;  and 
every  heart  yielded  a  responsive  throb  as  these  sentences 
fell  upon  the  ear : 

"Mr.  Chief  Justice  and  Senators,  it  may  seem  an  act  of 
indiscretion  almost  amounting  to  temerity  that  in  my  pres 
ent  health  I  should  attempt  the  great  labor  of  this  case. 
I  feel  that  in  my  best  estate  I  could  hardly  attain  to  the 


THE    TRIAL  503 

height  of  the  great  argument.  Careful  friends  have  ad 
vised  me  against  it.  My  watchful  physician  has  yielded 
a  half-reluctant  consent  to  my  request,  accompanied  with 
many  a  caution  that  I  fear  I  shall  not  observe.  But,  sena 
tors,  an  irresistible  impulse  hurries  me  forward.  The  flesh 
indeed  is  weak ;  the  spirit  is  willing.  Unseen  and  friendly 
hands  seem  to  support  me.  Voices  inaudible  to  all  others 
I  hear,  or  seem  to  hear.  They  whisper  words  of  consola 
tion,  of  hope,  of  confidence.  They  say,  or  seem  to  say  to 
me:  'Feeble  champion  of  the  right,  hold  not  back;  remem 
ber  that  the  race  is  not  always  to  the  swift  nor  the  battle 
to  the  strong;  remember  that  in  a  just  cause  a  single  pebble 
from  the  brook  was  enough  in  the  sling  of  the  young  shep 
herd.'  " 

Despite  his  resolution,  the  counsel  was  soon  com 
pelled  to  beg  the  indulgence  of  the  court,  and  an 
adjournment  was  taken  until  the  morrow.  The  next 
morning,  he  proceeded  for  awhile  until  forced  to  ask 
permission  that  a  young  friend  present  might  relieve 
him  "by  reading  from  his  brief. "  His  friend  read  for 
him  during  the  main  part  of  the  session,  but  towards 
its  close  he  resumed  and  concluded.  The  written  argu 
ment,  in  which  there  is  very  little  new,  it  is  not  neces 
sary  to  go  over ;  but  we  cannot  refrain  from  giving  the 
noble  tribute  to  Andrew  Johnson  with  which  the 
orator  closed.  Its  concluding  paragraph  touches  a 
higher  mark  of  eloquence  than  any  other  utterance  on 
the  trial. 

"Now,  listen  for  a  moment  to  one  who,  perhaps,  under 
stands  Andrew  Johnson  better  than  most  of  you ;  for  his 
opportunities  have  been  greater.  When,  nearly  two  years 


504    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ago,  he  called  me  from  the  pursuits  of  professional  life  to 
take  a  chair  in  his  cabinet  I  answered  the  call  under  a 
sense  of  public  duty.  I  came  here  almost  a  stranger  to 
him  and  to  every  member  of  his  cabinet  except  Mr.  Stan- 
ton.  We  had  been  friends  for  many  years.  Senators,  need 
I  tell  you  that  all  my  tendencies  are  conservative?  You, 
Mr.  Chief  Justice,  who  have  known  me  for  the  third  of  a 
century,  can  bear  me  witness.  Law,  not  arms,  is  my 
profession.  From  the  moment  that  I  was  honored  with  a 
seat  in  the  cabinet  of  Mr.  Johnson  not  a  step  was  taken 
that  did  not  come  under  my  observation,  not  a  word  was 
said  that  escaped  my  attention.  I  regarded  him  closely 
in  cabinet,  and  in  still  more  private  and  confidential  con 
versation.  I  saw  him  often  tempted  with  bad  advice.  I 
knew  that  evil  counsellors  were  more  than  once  around  him. 
I  observed  him  with  the  most  intense  anxiety.  But  never, 
in  word,  in  deed,  in  thought,  in  action,  did  I  discover  in 
that  man  anything  but  loyalty  to  the  Constitution  and  the 
laws.  He  stood  firm  as  a  rock  against  all  temptation  to 
abuse  his  own  powers  or  to  exercise  those  which  were  not 
conferred  upon  him.  Steadfast  and  self-reliant  in  the 
midst  of  all  difficulty,  when  dangers  threatened,  when  temp 
tations  were  strong,  he  looked  only  to  the  Constitution  of 
his  country  and  to  the  people. 

''Yes,  senators,  I  have  seen  that  man  tried  as  few  have 
been  tried.  I  have  seen  his  confidence  abused.  I  have 
seen  him  endure,  day  by  day,  provocations  such  as  few  men 
have  ever  been  called  upon  to  meet.  No  man  could  have 
met  them  with  more  sublime  patience.  Sooner  or  later, 
however,  I  knew  the  explosion  must  come.  And  when  it 
did  come  my  only  wonder  was  that  it  had  been  so  long 
delayed.  Yes,  senators,  with  all  his  faults,  the  President 
has  been  more  sinned  against  than  sinning.  Fear  not, 


THE    TRIAL  505 

then,  to  acquit  him.  The  Constitution  of  the  country  is 
as  safe  in  his  hands  from  violence  as  it  was  in  the  hands 
of  Washington.  But  if,  senators,  you  condemn  him,  if 
you  strip  him  of  the  robes  of  office,  if  you  degrade  him  to 
the  utmost  stretch  of  your  power,  mark  the  prophecy :  The 
strong  arms  of  the  people  will  be  about  him.  They  will 
find  a  way  to  raise  him  from  any  depths  to  which  you  may 
consign  him,  and  we  shall  live  to  see  him  redeemed,  and  to 
hear  the  majestic  voice  of  the  people,  'well  done,  faithful 
servant ;  you  shall  have  your  reward ! ' 

"But  if,  senators,  as  I  cannot  believe,  but  as  has  been 
boldly  said  with  almost  official  sanction,  your  votes  have 
been  canvassed  and  the  doom  of  the  President  is  sealed, 
then  let  that  judgment  not  be  pronounced  in  this  Senate 
Chamber;  not  here,  where  our  Camillus  in  the  hour  of  our 
greatest  peril,  single-handed,  met  and  baffled  the  enemies 
of  the  republic;  not  here,  where  he  stood  faithful  among 
the  faithless ;  not  here,  where  he  fought  the  good  fight  for 
the  Union  and  the  Constitution ;  not  in  this  chamber,  whose 
walls  echo  with  that  clarion  voice  that,  in  the  days  of  our 
greatest  danger,  carried  hope  and  comfort  to  many  a  de 
sponding  heart,  strong  as  an  army  with  banners.  No,  not 
here.  Seek  out  rather  the  darkest  and  gloomiest  chamber 
in  the  subterranean  recesses  of  this  Capitol,  where  the 
cheerful  light  of  day  never  enters.  There  erect  the  altar 
and  immolate  the  victim. " 

On  Monday,  the  fourth  of  May,  there  was  a  great 
rush  to  the  capitol  to  hear  the  chief  of  the  managers 
wind  up  the  prosecution.  Bingham  was  well  known 
as  a  clever  and  forcible  speaker,  overflowing  with 
rhetorical  phrases,  patriotic  appeals  and  the  still  warm 
rallying  cries  of  the  war.  Besides,  he  possessed  a 


506   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

store  of  uproarious  invective  which  he  could  turn  on 
the  momentary  victim  of  his  wrath  with  prodigious 
effect.  The  more  ardent  impeachers,  therefore,  packed 
the  galleries  to  hear  him  demolish  in  Western  style 
the  too  stately  Curtis  and  trample  over  the  too 
scholarly  Evarts;  but,  especially,  "to  feast  their  ears 
on  his  excoriation  of  '  Andy. ' '  The  task  before  him, 
however,  was  by  no  means  easy,  for  not  a  single  argu 
ment  remained  that  had  not  been  already  threshed  out 
backwards  and  forwards,  three  or  four  times.  And 
he  himself  laboured  under  one  heavy  disadvantage 
which  had  not  hampered  his  associates.  Alone  among 
the  managers  (except  Wilson,  who  did  not  participate 
in  the  summing  up)  he  had  opposed  the  first  impeach 
ment  movement,  and  the  second,  he  had  stifled  in  com 
mittee.  Butler  and  Boutwell  and  Stevens  and  Williams 
scrupled  not  to  sweep  into  the  field  of  view  the  long- 
series  of  charges  which  the  adverse  vote  of  the  House 
had  made  obsolete;  because  they  really  believed  the 
House  had  shirked  its  duty  and  that  in  these  charges 
lay  the  real  crimes  of  the  President.  But  from  Bing- 
ham,  who  had  voted  these  charges  either  unproved,  or 
undeserving  the  exercise  of  the  impeaching  power,  any 
such  license  of  expatiation  was  shut  off.  He,  at  least, 
from  very  shame,  must  confine  himself  to  the  law  and 
the  testimony,  and  not  permit  himself  to  wander  among 
extraneous  offences  his  own  vote  had  condoned.  Yet, 
notwithstanding  these  disadvantages,  the  manager 
proved  equal  to  his  task.  In  truth,  he  enjoyed  two  gifts 
from  nature  that  probably  made  him  unconscious  of 
any  difficulty.  He  could  talk  upon  any  subject  for  any 


THE    TRIAL  507 

length  of  time,  and  his  self-sufficiency  was  so  entire 
that  the  possibility  of  failure  never  entered  his  mind. 
It  was  not  a  necessary  antecedent  to  the  uninterrupted 
flow  of  his  argument  that  he  should  believe  in  his  case. 
A  certain  measure  of  sincerity,  we  may  accord  to  But 
ler,  Boutwell,  Stevens  and  Williams,  because,  in  one 
way  or  another,  they  believed  that  Andrew  Johnson 
was  guilty  of  a  long  series  of  offences  for  which  he 
ought  to  be  turned  out  of  office.  If  they  did  not  be 
lieve  in  the  present  case  as  made  by  the  record,  there 
could  be  no  doubt  of  their  belief  in  the  case  outside  the 
record.  Their  speeches,  consequently,  in  some  parts 
at  least,  have  the  true  ring.  With  Bingham  it  was  not 
so.  His  vote  on  the  first  impeachment  and  his  active 
opposition  to  the  second  demonstrate  that,  up  to  the 
twenty-first  day  of  February, .  1868,  he  believed  the 
President  guilty  of  no  impeachable  offence ;  and  it  was 
freely  admitted  by  members  more  radical  than  Bing 
ham,  that,  standing  alone,  the  acts  of  the  twenty-first 
of  February  were  not  such  as  to  call  forth  the  exercise 
of  the  impeaching  power. 

That  this  view  is  not  too  uncharitable,  the  speech 
of  Bingham,  taken  as  a  whole,  proves.  The  thought  is 
constantly  recurring  to  the  reader's  mind  that  the 
speaker  does  not,  at  heart,  believe  what  he  is  saying. 
The  speech  is  full  of  self -glorify  ing  demolitions  of 
positions  the  defendant  had  never  taken  up,  of  whole 
sale  begging  of  the  questions  in  dispute,  of  reiterations 
of  propositions  unaccompanied  by  proof  and  of  refuta 
tions  which  do  not  refute,  accompanied  by  vociferous 
assertions  of  there  being  no  doubt  whatever  about  the 


508    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

propositions  and  nothing  whatever  left  of  the  defence. 
At  the  threshold  of  his  address  he  protests  that  he 
comes  to  the  argument  "in  no  mere  partisan  spirit,  in 
no  spirit  of  resentment  or  prejudice" ;  and  immediately 
proceeds  to  falsify  this  protest  by  dragging  before  the 
court  ' '  the  disgraceful  part  which  Andrew  Johnson  had 
played  here  upon  the  tribune  of  the  Senate  on  the  4th 
day  of  March,  1865";— an  incident,  not  relevant  to  the 
issue,  not  comprehended  in  the  proof,  and  to  which 
none  but  the  bitterest  partisan  would  have  permitted 
himself  to  allude.  To  a  certain  extent  he  does  respect 
the  barrier  raised  by  his  previous  votes,  and  takes  no 
long  flight  into  events  antedating  the  twenty-first  of 
February.  Nevertheless,  he  will  not  be  tied  to  that 
fatal  date.  He  cannot  go  back;  therefore  he  must  go 
forward.  Debarred  from  the  past,  he  launches  into 
the  future.  According  to  the  manager,  the  crime  the 
Senate  is  trying  is  not  what  the  President  did  on  the 
twenty-first  nor  what  he  did  before  that  day,  but  the 
crime  consists  in  the  defence  he  sets  up  now. 

"The  fact  is  we  are  passing  upon  the  question  whether 
the  President  may  not,  at  his  pleasure,  and  without  peril 
to  his  official  position,  set  aside  and  annul  both  the  Consti 
tution  and  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  and  in  his  great 
office  inaugurate  anarchy  in  the  land.  .  .  . 

"No  matter  what  demagogues  may  say  of  it  outside  this 
chamber,  no  matter  what  retained  counsel  may  say  of  it 
inside  this  chamber,  that  is  the  issue;  and  the  recording 
angel  of  history  has  already  struck  it  into  the  adamant  of 
the  past,  there  to  remain  forever ;  and  upon  that  issue,  sena 
tors,  you  and  the  House  of  Representatives  will  stand  or  fall 


THE    TRIAL  509 

before  the  tribunal  of  the  future.  That  is  the  issue.  It  is 
all  there  is  of  it.  It  is  what  is  embraced  in  the  articles  of 
impeachment.  It  is  all  that  is  embraced  in  them.  In  spite 
of  the  technicalities,  in  spite  of  the  lawyer's  tricks,  in  spite 
of  the  futile  pleas  that  have  been  interposed  here  in  the 
President's  defence,  that  is  the  issue.  It  is  the  head  and 
front  of  Andrew  Johnson's  offending,  that  he  has  assumed 
to  himself  the  executive  prerogative  of  interpreting  the 
Constitution  and  deciding  upon  the  validity  of  the  laws  at 
his  pleasure,  and  suspending  them  and  dispensing  with 
their  execution.  .  .  .  The  man  who  has  heard  this  prolonged 
discussion  running  through  days  and  weeks,  who  does  not 
understand  this  to  be  the  plain,  simple  proposition,  made 
in  the  hearing  of  senators,  insisted  upon  as  the  President's 
defence,  is  one  of  those  unfortunates  whom  even  a  thrush 
might  pity,  to  whom  God  in  his  providence  has  denied  the 
usual  measure  of  that  intellectual  faculty  which  we  call 
reason. ' ' 

This  defence  means,  he  claims,  that  the  courts  at  the 
last  have  a  supervising  power  over  the  power  of  im 
peachment  vested  in  the  House  and  over  the  power  to 
try  vested  in  the  Senate.  "On  this  proposition  I  am 
willing  to  stand,  defying  any  man  here  or  elsewhere  to 
challenge  it  successfully.  The  position  assumed  by  the 
accused  means  that  or  it  means  nothing. ' '  "  Just  noth 
ing.  ' '  All  day  long,  the  first  day,  he  rings  the  changes 
on  the  enormity  of  this  defence— "the  monstrous  plea 
interposed  for  the  first  time  in  our  history "  —  striking 
the  top  of  his  compass  in  such  a  note  as  this : 

"The  Constitution  itself,  according  to  this  assumption, 
is  at  his  mercy,  as  well  as  the  laws,  and  the  people  of  the 
United  States  are  to  stand  by  and  be  mocked  and  derided 


510    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

in  their  own  Capitol  when,  in  accordance  with  the  express 
provision  of  their  Constitution,  they  bring  him  to  the  bar 
of  the  Senate  to  answer  for  such  a  crime  than  which  none 
greater  ever  was  committed  since  the  day  when  the  first 
crime  was  committed  upon  this  planet  as  it  sprung  from 
the  hand  of  the  Creator;  that  crime  which  covered  one 
manly  brow  with  the  ashy  paleness  and  terrible  beauty  of 
death,  and  another  with  the  damning  blotch  of  fratricide ! ' ' 

This  monstrous  claim  "is  the  defence  and  the  whole 
defence  of  the  President."  "It  cannot  be  otherwise. 
It  is  written  in  his  answer.  It  is  written  in  the  argu 
ments  of  his  counsel  printed  and  laid  upon  your  tables. 
No  mortal  man  can  evade  it.  It  is  all  there  is  of  it. ' ' 

Bingham  goes  farther  than  any  of  his  associates  had 
ventured,  in  boldly  denying  that  in  any  case,  no  matter 
how  extreme,  the  President  could  be  justified  in  protect 
ing  the  Constitution  against  the  laws ;— for  example,  not 
even  against  "a  law  declaring  he  shall  not  be  Com- 
mander-in- Chief  of  the  Army,  a  law  declaring  that  he 
shall  not  exercise  the  pardoning  power  in  any  case  what 
ever.  ' '  The  President  in  no  event  is  to  interfere.  That 
is  for  the  people  to  do  by  repealing  the  law.  The  air 
of  condescension  with  which  John  A.  Bingham  speaks 
of  Thomas  Jefferson,  whose  opinions  on  this  subject 
happened  to  clash  with  his  own,  is  characteristic : 

"I  am  not  disposed  to  cast  reproach  upon  Mr.  Jefferson. 
I  know  well  that  he  was  not  one  of  the  framers  of  the  Con 
stitution.  I  know  wrell  that  he  was  not  one  of  the  builders 
of  the  fabric  of  American  empire.  While  he  contributed 
much  to  work  out  the  emancipation  of  the  American  people 
from  the  control  and  domination  of  British  rule  and  de- 


THE    TRIAL  511 

serves  well  of  his  country,  one  (!)*  of  the  authors  of  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  yet  I  know  well  enough  that 
his  opinions  on  that  subject  are  not  accepted  at  this  day 
by  the  great  body  of  the  American  people  and  find  no 
place  in  the  authoritative  and  commanding  writers  upon 
the  text  of  your  Constitution." 

We  cannot  follow  the  manager  in  his  review  of  the 
articles  and  the  evidence;  nothing  novel  or  noteworthy 
being  developed.  It  was  not,  indeed,  to  hear  expositions 
of  articles  or  demonstrations  of  guilt,  that  his  enthu 
siastic  admirers  in  the  galleries  and  on  the  floor  ex- 
ultingly  followed  him  through  three  long  days,  and 
went  about  extolling  the  performance  as  "a  splendid 
speech."  The  supremely  confident  bearing  of  the 
speaker,  the  swelling  tones  of  his  voice  rising  higher 
and  higher  as  he  piled  one  *  *  I  demand  to  know ' '  on  top 
of  another,  and  the  graceful  sweep  of  his  gestures  car 
ried  along  the  thin  thread  of  his  reasoning  in  a  kind  of 
momentary  triumph.  But  for  the  reader,  alas !  all  these 
superficial  adjuncts  are  absent,  and  the  speech  lies  bare 
in  all  its  intrinsic  vapidity.  To  compare  it  with  a  piece 
of  close-wrought  logic  such  as  the  argument  of  Curtis, 
or  with  a  plain  terse  specimen  of  forensic  argumentation 
such  as  that  of  Groesbeck,  or  with  a  philosophic  oration 
like  that  of  Evarts,  is  impossible  because  it  belongs  to 
a  different  species  of  address.  On  the  other  hand,  com 
paring  it  with  the  arguments  of  his  associates,  it  falls 
below  Mr.  Boutwell  's  statesmanlike  method  of  arranging 
his  propositions;  with  all  its  affected  bitterness  it  has 
not  the  genuine  stinging  power  of  Stevens;  notwith- 

*  Italics  and  punctuation  mine. 


512    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

standing  its  frequent  outbursts  of  patriotic  fervour,  it 
does  not  rise  to  the  height  of  feeling  we  still  detect  be 
neath  the  ornate  periods  of  Williams;  with  the  hollow 
tone  that  runs  through  its  most  passionate  invective,  it 
lacks  the  downright  vigour  which  Butler's  earnestness 
lent  to  his  blows. 

Overlooking  particular  arguments  and  matters  of  de 
tail,  the  central  aim  of  the  speech,  as  we  have  already 
pointed  out,  is  directed  against  what  the  speaker  brands 
as  "the  monstrous  claim,"  put  forward  by  the  Presi 
dent,  of  the  right  to  test  the  constitutionality  of  a  law  in 
the  courts.  With  a  fierce  attack  upon  it  he  began ;  with, 
a  final  desperate  charge  upon  it  he  ended : 

"Is  it  not  in  vain,  I  ask  you  that  the  people  have  thus 
vindicated  by  battle  the  supremacy  of  their,  own  Constitu 
tion  and  laws,  if,  after  all,  their  President  is  permitted  to 
suspend  their  laws  and  dispense  with  the  execution  thereof 
at  pleasure,  and  defy  the  power  of  the  people  to  bring  him 
to  trial  and  punishment  before  the  only  tribunal  authorized 
by  the  Constitution  to  try  him?  That  is  the  issue  which 
is  presented  before  the  Senate  for  decision  by  these  articles 
of  impeachment." 

It  was  the  same  defence,  he  continued,— this  right  to 
dispense  with  the  laws— that  Charles  I  and  James  II 
set  up  to  justify  their  usurpation.  The  one  lost  his  head, 
the  other  his  throne.  Surely  such  a  defence  "ought  to 
cost  Andrew  Johnson  his  office. ' ' 

"May  God  forbid  that  the  future  historian  shall  record 
of  this  day's  proceedings,  that  by  reason  of  the  failure  of 
the  legislative  power  of  the  people  to  triumph  over  the 


THE    TRIAL  513 


usurpations  of  an  apostate  President  through  the  defection 
of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  the  just  and  great 
fabric  of  American  empire  fell  and  perished  from  the 
earth !  .  .  .  Pardon  me  for  saying  it ;  I  speak  it  in  no  offen 
sive  spirit;  I  speak  if  from  a  sense  of  duty;  I  utter  but  my 
own  conviction,  and  desire  to  place  it  upon  the  record,  that 
for  the  Senate  to  sustain  any  such  plea,  would,  in  my 
judgment,  be  a  gross  violation  of  the  already  violated  Con 
stitution  and  laws  of  a  free  people.  ...  I  put  away  the 
possibility  that  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  equal  in 
dignity  to  any  tribunal  in  the  world,  is  capable  of  record 
ing  any  such  decision  even  upon  the  petition  and  prayer 
of  this  accused  and  guilty  President.  ...  I  ask  you  to  con 
sider  that  we  stand  this  day  pleading  for  the  violated 
majesty  of  the  law,  by  the  graves  of  half  a  million  of  mar 
tyred  hero-patriots  Avho  made  death  beautiful  by  the  sacri 
fice  of  themselves  for  their  country,  the  Constitution  and 
the  laws,  and  who,  by  their  sublime  example,  have  taught 
us  that  all  must  obey  the  law ;  that  none  are  above  the  law, 
that  no  man  lives  for  himself  alone,  but  each  for  all;  that 
some  must  die  that  the  State  may 'live;  that  the  citizen  is 
at  best  but  for  to-day,  while  the  Commonwealth  is  for  all 
time;  and  that  position,  however  high,  patronage,  however 
powerful,  cannot  be  permitted  to  shelter  crime  to  the  peril 
of  the  republic." 

These  final  words,  devoid  as  they  are  of  any  genuine 
spirit-stirring  power,  drove  the  crowded  galleries 
frantic.  To  the  grand  perorations  of  Groesbeck  and 
Stanbery  they  listened  in  silence.  They  now  broke  out 
into  noisy  and  disorderly  manifestations  of  approba 
tion.  Men  and  women  rose  to  their  feet  cheering,  clap 
ping  hands  and  waving  handkerchiefs.  The  appeals  of 

33 


514   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  Chief  Justice  for  order  were  greeted  with  laughs  of 
derision  and  hisses  of  hate.  The  galleries  were  ordered 
cleared,  and  the  court  sat  silent  and  shamed,  while  the 
people,  the  innocent  with  the  guilty— even  the  reporters 
of  the  press— were  slowly  driven  out.  Thus  ended  this 
celebrated  trial.  The  case  was  now  wholly  withdrawn 
into  the  bosom  of  the  court.  The  next  day,  behind  closed 
doors,  a  rule  was  adopted  fixing  Monday,  the  eleventh, 
for  deliberation  on  the  articles  and  the  day  following 
for  the  final  vote. 

[The  authority  for  the  statements  and  extracts  contained 
in  this  chapter  being,  of  course,  the  official  report  of  the 
trial,  a  more  particular  reference  was  considered  unnecessary.] 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  ACQUITTAL 

To  the  New  Hampshire  Republican  convention  which 
met  on  the  fourth  of  May  to  elect  delegates  to  the  na 
tional  convention  to  nominate  General  Grant,  Wash- 
burne  sent  a  telegram :  ' '  Bingham  is  making  a  splendid 
speech.  All  looks  well.  The  Constitution  will  be  vindi 
cated,  and  the  recreant  put  out  of  the  White  House  be 
fore  the  end  of  the  week ' ' ;  and  Butler  regaled  the  same 
body  with  similar  tidings  put  into  poetic  f orm :  ' i  The 
removal  of  the  great  obstruction  is  certain.  Wade  and 
prosperity  are  sure  to  come  with  the  apple-blossoms. " 
But  the  confidence  of  the  majority  of  the  leaders  in 
the  success  of  the  movement  was  not  so  overweening. 
Butler  himself  was  more  than  half  convinced  that  his 
pet  charge  would  have  to  go  by  the  board.  The  Emory 
article,  also,  it  was  almost  universally  admitted,  was 
demolished  beyond  reparation.  Even  the  conspiracy 
articles  depended  for  their  life  upon  the  rhetoric  of 
Bingham,  who,  since  his  memorable  achievement  in  the 
assassination  ' '  Conspiracy  Trial, ' '  was  looked  up  to  as 
an  expert  in  dealing  with  that  species  of  crime.  Before 
the  arguments  were  over  it  was  generally  felt  that  the 
prosecution  must  rely  for  conviction  on  the  charges 
of  attempting  to  remove  Stanton  and  of  appointing 
Thomas,  involved  in  the  first  three  articles,  or,  in  case 

*  See  Prefatory  note. 

515 


516    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  unlucky  proviso  stood  in  the  way,  then  upon  the 
enigmatic  eleventh  which  had  been  concocted  at  the  last 
moment  for  just  such  an  emergency. 

Great  was  the  uneasiness  over  particular  senators. 
The  test  votes,  taken  while  the  court  was  being  organ 
ized  and  during  the  trial,  were  carefully  studied,  and,  at 
the  close  of  the  case  for  the  prosecution,  the  Republican 
politicians  were  able  to  spell  out  twenty-nine  senators 
sure  to  vote  guilty  on  one  or  more  articles,  including 
Wade  who  thus  far  had  abstained  from  voting.  This 
left  thirteen  Republican  senators  whose  votes  were 
favourable  to  the  President  in  a  majority  of  instances, 
thus  casting  doubt  over  their  attitude  on  the  final  ques 
tion.  At  the  close  of  the  testimony,  when  the  yeas  and 
nays  on  the  closest  vote  excluding  the  evidence  of  the 
members  of  the  Cabinet  were  subjected  to  scrutiny,  the 
twenty-six  senators  who  voted  in  the  negative,  together 
with  the  five  not  voting  (Conkling,  Morton,  Nye,  Sum- 
ner  and  Wade)  making  thirty-one,  were  counted  as  solid 
for  conviction.  Only  five  more  were  necessary.  Of  the 
eleven  Republican  senators  who  voted  in  the  affirmative, 
Fessenden,  who  opposed  the  resolution  censuring  the 
President,  was  almost  despaired  of;  Grimes  and  Trum- 
bull  were  impervious  to  outside  influence ;  Anthony  was 
an  intimate  friend  of  the  Chief  Justice,  and  Sprague 
was  his  son-in-law;  Sherman  was  committed  adversely 
on  the  Cabinet  proviso ;  the  two  West  Virginia  senators 
were  in  the  habit  of  taking  opposite  sides  on  momentous 
questions ;  Henderson,  Fowler  and  Ross  were  silent  and 
claimed  by  both  the  President's  counsel  and  the  man 
agers  ;  yet  out  of  these  the  indispensable  five  must  come. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  517 

From  the  outset,  the  Republican  representatives 
never  made  any  secret  of  their  practice  of  bringing 
party  influence  to  bear  upon  members  of  the  court. 
Secret  meetings  of  senators,  representatives,  office 
holders,  office-seekers,  party  bosses  and  party  leaders 
were  held,  in  which  the  result  of  the  trial  was  canvassed 
with  all  the  eagerness  of  a  party  conclave  preliminary 
to  a  nominating  convention.  In  truth,  the  entire  im 
peachment  trial  was,  in  effect^s  much  a  convention  of 
the  Republican  party  to  put  Andrew  Johnson  out,  as 
the  assembly  to  meet  in  Chicago  was  a  convention  of  the 
Republican  party  to  put  General  Grant  in.'  Indeed,  but 
few  of  the  majority  senators  thought  it  obligatory  to 
hold  themselves  aloof  from  discussing  the  merits  of 
the  case  out  of  court.  On  the  day  the  impeachment 
was  voted,  senators  were  seen  on  the  floor  of  the 
House  urging  the  representatives  to  do  their  duty; 
and  during  the  trial  "senators  kept'  lists  on  ^liicli  the 
doubtful  judges  were  noted  In  order  -to  extort  from 
them  a  declaration  of  opinion.  When  the  case  was 
closed  and  the  *  court  about  to  deliberate  in  secret, 
the  suspense  over  members  who,  in  spite  of  every 
importunity,  persisted  in  maintaining  silence,  rose 
to  such  a  pitch  that  the  leaders  threw  off  the  last 
vestige  of  decorum,  went  into  caucus  and  organized 
a  far-reaching  combination  to  coerce  the  suspected 
judges  into  submission  to  their  party's  decree.  De 
tectives  kept  a  secret  eye  on  their  residences  and  on 
the  residence  of  the  Chief  Justice.  Spies  mingled 
in  the  social  circles  they  frequented,  to  catch  some 
unguarded  word,  and  agents  were  employed  to  pester 


518    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

them  with  every  species  of  importunity  to  disclose 
their  real  intentions.  They  were  threatened  in  the 
party  press;  their  constituents  were  stirred  up  to 
threaten  them  from  home;  letters  were  sent  to  them 
from  all  quarters  filled  with  threats  of  political  ostra 
cism  and  even  of  assassination,  in  the  event  of  their 
treason.  Crowds  of  professional  bettors  flocked  to 
Washington,  and  during  the  week  before  the  eleventh 
much  money  was  staked  on  the  result— the  odds  being 
in  favour  of  acquittal.  On  the  eighth,  Stevens  reported 
a  bill  for  the  admission  of  Arkansas  under  her  Afri 
canized  government,  and  when  the  minority  protested 
against  his  attempt  to  put  it  on  its  passage  before  they 
had  time  to  examine  the  constitution  of  the  state, 
avowed:  "There  are  reasons  which  I  do  not  think  it 
proper  or  necessary  to  mention  now,  why  this  bill 
should  be  considered,  passed  and  sent  to  the  Senate 
before  next  Monday " ;  as  though  it  might  be  necessary 
in  the  last  resort  to  add  two  more  senators  to  the  court. 
On  Monday  (the  eleventh)  after  the  galleries  were 
cleared  and  the  doors  were  closed,  the  Chief  Justice  read 
the  views  he  had  prepared  at  the  request  of  the  Senate 
upon  the  mode  of  putting  the  question  on  the  several 
articles  of  impeachment,  in  which,  among  other  things, 
in  answer  to  a  suggestion  that  the  eleventh  article  be 
divided  into  clauses  and  the  vote  taken  clause  by  clause, 
he  stated  "that  he  found  himself  unable  to  divide  the 
article"  because  the  "several  facts  are  so  connected 
that  they  make  but  one  allegation,  and  they  are  charged 
as  constituting  one  misdemeanor."  "The  single  sub 
stantive  matter  charged,"  according  to  the  Chief 


THE    ACQUITTAL  519 

Justice,  "is  the  attempt  to  prevent  the  execution  of  the 
Tenure-of -office  act;  and  the  other  facts  are  alleged 
either  as  introductory  and  exhibiting  the  general  pur 
pose,  or  as  showing  the  means  contrived  in  furtherance 
of  that  attempt. ' '  This  matter  being  disposed  of,  Sum- 
ner  pressed  forward  a  rule,  offered  by  him  some  days 
before  (April  25),  providing,  in  case  of  conviction,  that 
judgment  of  removal  from  office  which  necessarily  fol 
lowed  should  be  pronounced  forthwith,  but  that  "any 
further  judgment  shall  be  on  the  order  of  the  Senate." 
He  had,  also,  offered  an  amendment  to  the  rules  that 
"any  further  judgment,"  the  infliction  of  which  was 
optional  with  the  Senate,  i.  e.,  disqualification  from 
office,  "shall  be  determined  by  a  majority  of  the  mem 
bers  present."  In  short,  this  judge  of  the  High  Court 
was  already  devising  a  way  to  deprive  the  convicted  and 
deposed  President  of  his  last  resource — an  appeal  to  the 
people.  The  proposed  order  was  debated  until  the  hour 
fixed  for  the  final  deliberation . on  the  verdict  (eleven 
o'clock),  when  action  upon  it  was  necessarily  suspended 
and  the  matter  never  came  up  again.  From  the  hour 
mentioned  until  eleven  o'clock  at  night,  with  the  excep 
tion  of  twenty  minutes  recess  at  about  two  and  of  two 
hours  recess  at  half-past  five,  the  proceedings  were 
shrouded  in  almost  impenetrable  secrecy,  while  the  con 
centrated  anxiety  of  the  whole  nation  was  symbolized 
by  the  crowds  surging  around  the  closed  doors.  Under 
the  rules,  every  senator  might  speak  on  the  articles,  but 
no  longer  than  fifteen  minutes  and  but  once;  he  might 
file,  however,  a  written  opinion  within  two  days  after 
the  vote  was  taken.  An  effort  had  been  made  to  secure 


520    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  ultimate  publicity  of  the  discussion  by  allowing  the 
official  reporters  to  take  down  the  speeches,  but  the  sen 
ators  would  not  consent;  so  that  what  individual  sena 
tors  took  part  and  what  any  of  them  said  can  only  be 
gathered  from  reports,  more  or  less  reliable,  current  at 
the  time,  and  the  few  indications  the  opinions,  after 
wards  filed,  afford.  During  the  two  intervals  of  recess 
and  after  the  session  was  over  at  midnight,  the  released 
senators  were  beset  by  groups  of  curious  people  im 
ploring  information.  And  the  stalwarts,  whose  opinions 
were  known  and  who  were  themselves  active  in  elec 
tioneering  their  less  forward  associates,  were  not  scru 
pulous  in  keeping  the  secrets  of  the  tribunal.  The  first 
item  of  interesting  news  that  leaked  out  was  that  the 
first  article  was  in  peril.  Sherman  had  declared  that 
in  the  face  of  his  record  he  could  not  vote  for  it,  and 
Howe  followed  him  with  a  similar  declaration.  Then  it 
was  reported  that  Edmunds  and  Stewart  had  come  out 
in  support  of  it;  but  the  effect  of  this  report  was  im 
mediately  neutralized  by  the  counter-report  that  Van 
Winkle  and  Willey  agreed  with  Sherman  and  Howe. 
The  President's  stock  rose.  One  of  the  many  telegrams 
sent  out  described  the  situation  as  follows :  * '  Hell  going 
on  in  Senate  now."  Later  on  came  the  decisive  infor 
mation  that  Fessenden,  Grimes  and  Trumbull  had  de 
livered  opinions  favourable  to  the  President  on  all  the 
articles.  At  the  two  hours  recess  for  dinner,  it  was 
ascertained  that  Sherman  and  Howe,  notwithstanding 
their  falling  away  on  the  first,  were  for  conviction  on 
some  of  the  other  articles  and  it  was  rumoured  that 
Willev  would  vote  for  the  second;  so  that  there  was  a 


THE    ACQUITTAL  521 

momentary  reaction;  but  it  was  soon  authoritatively 
stated  that  Henderson  had  spoken  against  the  first  eight 
articles  before  he  was  cut  off  by  the  expiration  of  his 
time.  As  the  senators  flocked  out  to  dinner  Henderson 
was  seen,  in  company  with  the  Chief  Justice,  Reverdy 
Johnson  and  Sprague,  to  enter  Sprague's  carriage,  and 
all  were  driven  to  the  Chief  Justice's  residence  where 
Henderson  dined.  The  spirits  of  the  Impeachers  fell. 
"We  are  sold  out,"  Butler  came  into  the  House  ex 
claiming,  and  the  majority  exhibited  premonitory  symp 
toms  of  a  panic.  They  were  anxious  to  adjourn  over 
the  national  convention  (to  meet  on  the  twentieth),  so  as 
to  enable  members  to  attend,  but  in  the  dubious  straits 
they  were  now  in  they  knew  not  what  to  do.  First,  by 
the  vote  of  the  Speaker  on  a  tie,  they  laid  the  resolution 
to  adjourn  over  on  the  table.  Then  they  took  it  up 
again  and  adopted  it  by  a  majority  of  one.  Stevens 
reported  from  the  reconstruction  committee  a  bill  for 
the  admission  of  North  Carolina,  South  Carolina, 
Louisiana,  Georgia  and  Alabama ;  and  it  was  made  the 
special  order  for  the  next  Wednesday,  so  that  the  pros 
pect  of  ten  more  senators,  as  well  as  the  two  from 
Arkansas,  might  be  before  the  eyes  of  the  judges  on  the 
morrow.  During  the  night  session,  it  leaked  out  that 
Harlan,  Conness,  Pomeroy  and  Morton  had  spoken 
strongly  for  conviction  on  the  principal  articles ;  but 
this,  being  no  more  than  was  expected,  did  little  to  allay 
the  prevailing  disquietude ;  while,  coupled  with  this  re 
port  came  another,  that  Fowler  talked  so  unreliably  as 
to  be  almost  given  over,  and  Ross  kept  up  the  same 
ominous  silence  he  had  persisted  in  all  day.  At  mid- 


522    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

night,  the  impeachers  were  assured  that,  despite  the 
malign  influence  of  Chase,  Anthony  and  Sprague  were 
sound  on  at  least  one  of  the  articles,  but  even,  with  those 
senators,  they  were  unable  to  make  out  a  list  of  the  indis 
pensable  thirty-six  without  including  Willey  and  Ross. 
There  was  no  sleep  that  night  for  the  leaders  of  the 
impeachment,  whether  in  the  House  or  in  the  Senate. 
Howard,  whose  vote,  as  they  now  saw,  they  could  not  do 
without,  had  been  absent  from  the  secret  session,  and  it 
was  announced  that  he  was  too  ill  to  be  present  on  the 
morrow.  An  adjournment  was  therefore  imperative; 
and  in  the  meantime  the  heaviest  pressure  from  all 
quarters  was  at  once  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon  every 
senator  whom  they  had  the  slightest  hope  still  to  secure. 
Before  the  court  assembled  on  the  twelfth,  and  when 
as  yet  postponement  was  formally  undetermined,  the 
Republican  representatives  in  Congress  from  Missouri 
laid  siege  in  due  form  to  their  backsliding  senator. 
John  B.  Henderson — a  Douglas  Democrat  in  1860 — was 
sent  to  the  Senate  in  1862  to  fill  the  vacancy  caused 
by  the  expulsion  of  Trusten  Polk— gone  over  to  the 
secessionists;  and,  in  the  following  year,  was  elected 
for  a  full  term.  He  was  one  of  the  majority  of  Re 
publican  senators,  who  in  the  winter  of  1864-5  sustained 
President  Lincoln  in  his  purpose  o£  admitting 
Louisiana  and  other  reconstructed  states— a  purpose 
frustrated  by  the  tactics  of  Sumner.  He  had,  conse 
quently,  preserved  at  least  a  remnant  of  his  conserva 
tive  tendencies  during  the  succeeding  period  of  white 
disfranchisement  and  negro  enfranchisement  in  his 
state.  A  man  of  superior  ability  and  unblemished 


THE    ACQUITTAL  523 

character;  anxious  to  preserve  harmony  between  the 
administration  and  his  party ;  never  indulging  in  abuse 
of  the  President ;  planting  himself  from  the  first  upon  a 
policy,  original  with  himself,  that  the  states  should  be 
allowed  to  regulate  the  suffrage,  subject  only  to  a  con 
stitutional  restriction  that  in  prescribing  the  qualifica 
tions  of  the  voter  there  should  be  no  distinction  on  ac 
count  of  race  or  colour ;  his  speeches  in  the  Senate,  while 
justly  liable  to  no  charge  of  infidelity  to  his  party, 
presented  in  one  aspect  a  refreshing  contrast  to  those 
of  his  impetuous  colleague  and  the  reckless  band  of 
fiery  radicals  that  the  doctored  constituencies  of  his 
state  had  sent  to  the  House.  And  yet  a  studious  ob 
server  of  his  career  can  discover  that  his  conservatism 
halted  upon  one  foot ;  that,  when  it  came  to  the  decisive 
point,  the  senator  frequently  supported  by  vote  meas 
ures  he  deprecated  in  speech.  He  seemed  hampered 
by  the  changed  condition  of  affairs  in  his  state.  He 
said  he  did  not  believe  in  such  legislation  as  the  Freed- 
men's  Bureau  act,  yet  he  voted  for  it.  The  fourteenth 
amendment  ran  counter  to  his  favourite  remedy  con 
cerning  suffrage,  yet  he  supported  it.  He  recoiled 
from  lending  active  aid  to  such  an  iniquity  as  the  ex 
pulsion  of  Stockton;  yet  by  voting  against  postpone 
ment  he  indirectly  contributed  to  its  success.  And  .his 
trimming  did  him  no  good  eventually  with  the  zealots 
that  swarmed  in  his  state.  His  term  was  to  expire  in 
the  ensuing  spring,  and  he  must  have  been  aware  that 
the  legislature  of  his  state  would  select  a  more  daring 
radical  than  he  could  pretend  to  be.  His  course  on  the 
Impeachment  was  typical  of  the  temper  of  mind  which 


524    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

his  embarrassing  situation  superinduced.  He  did  not 
vote  on  the  non-concurrence  with  the  suspension  of 
Stanton,  but  it  was  stated  he  was  paired  with  Hendricks 
in  its  favour.  On  the  resolution  declaring  that  the 
President  had  no  power  to  remove  Stanton,  he  did  not 
vote.  During  the  trial,  on  the  test  votes  for  and  against 
the  admissibility  of  evidence,  he  was  always  with  the 
conservatives.  Since  the  close  of  the  case  he  had  ex 
pressed  to  one  or  more  of  the  favourers  of  Impeachment 
his  belief  that  the  President  ought  to  be  convicted,  and 
that,  while  he  could  not  support  the  main  articles,  he 
was  inclined  to  vote  for  the  eleventh ;  and,  the  after 
noon  before  in  the  secret  session,  as  we  have  seen,  he 
had  consumed  his  fifteen  minutes  in  delivering  an 
opinion  against  the  first  eight  articles;  the  ninth  and 
tenth,  it  was  to  be  presumed,  would  fare  no  better  at 
his  hands.  The  incident  of  his  going  to  Chase's  house 
for  dinner  had  grown  in  bulk  during  the  night,  and  it 
was  believed  in  the  morning  that,  following  the  carriage 
that  took  him  there,  was  a  hack  hired  by  Chase,  con 
taining  four  more  senators— Fessenden,  Trumbull, 
Grimes  and  (as  it  was  variously  stated)  Fowler  or  Van 
Winkle— who,  also,  alighted  at  the  Chief  Justice's  and 
dined  there;  the  guests  being  plied  with  wine  and 
arguments  against  impeachment  while  consulting  with 
their  host  concerning  the  organization  of  a  third  party.* 
Such  was  the  situation,  when  on  the  morning  of  the 
twelfth,  five  of  the  eight  Republican  members  of  the 
House  from  Missouri,  together  with  a  member  of  the 
Missouri  legislature  to  whom  Henderson  had  ex- 

*  New  York  Sun  correspondence  of  May  11. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  525 

pressed  the  equivocal  opinion  mentioned  above,  invaded 
the  rooms  of  their  wavering  senator.  They  told  him 
that  the  position  he  had  taken  on  the  Impeachment 
question  was  against  the  almost  unanimous  wish  of  the 
"Union"  party  of  their  state,  and  that  violence  and 
bloodshed,  they  feared,  would  follow  the  President's 
acquittal.  So  peremptory  were  they  in  their  language, 
that  Henderson  must  have  lost  his  self-possession,  judg 
ing  by  the  proposition  he  made  in  reply.  After  saying 
that  he  could  not  as  a  man  of  honour  vote  contrary  to 
the  opinion  he  had  expressed  in  the  Senate  on  the  first 
eight  articles,  that  he  was  no  less  decided  in  his  judg 
ment  against  the  sufficiency  of  the  ninth  and  tenth,  and 
was  in  doubt  only  as  to  the  last,  he  offered  to  telegraph 
his  resignation  to  the  governor  who  could  without  delay 
appoint  his  successor,  so  that  by  four  o  'clock  that  after 
noon  they  would  have  a  senator  to  their  liking,  whose 
credentials  would  be  here  in  time  for  the  vote  on  Satur 
day  (the  day  to  which  it  had  been  informally  decided 
the  court  would  adjourn).  Inquiries  were  naturally 
made  whether  the  new  appointee,  not  having  sat  dur 
ing  the  trial,  would  be  allowed  to  vote  on  the  judgment; 
and  it  appears  that  the  senator  assured  the  delegation 
that  such  a  course  was  legal,  and  there  would  be  no 
difficulty  on  that  question.  The  representatives,  how 
ever,  were  not  satisfied  on  this  point  and  protested  that 
they  did  not  want  his  resignation,  what  they  wanted 
was  his  vote;  on  those  articles  on  which  he  had  ex 
pressed  an  opinion,  he  might  withhold  his  vote,  but  on 
the  eleventh  and  on  any  others  he  might  favour  he  could 
vote  in  the  affirmative.  The  senator  requested  his 


526    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

friends  to  retire,  hold  a  consultation  among  themselves, 
and  advise  him  what  they  thought  proper  to  do  under 
the  circumstances.  In  compliance  with  this  singular 
request,  the  visiting  members  withdrew,  called  to  their 
aid  their  colleagues,  and  the  following  letter  was  sent 

the  same  morning : 

Washington,  May  12,  1868. 
Sir: 

On  a  consultation  of  the  Republican  members  of  the 
House  of  Representatives  from  Missouri,  in  view  of  your 
position  on  the  Impeachment  Articles,  we  ask  you  to  with 
hold  your  vote  on  any  article  upon  which  you  cannot  vote 
affirmatively.  This  request  is  made  because  we  believe 
the  safety  of  the  loyal  people  of  the  United  States  demands 
the  immediate  removal  of  Andrew  Johnson  from  the  office 
of  President  of  the  United  States. 

Respectfully, 

George  W.  Anderson 
William  A.  Pile 

Benjamin  F.  Loan     C.  A.  Newcomb 
John  J.  Benjamin      Joseph  W.  McClurg 

Joseph  J.  Gravely. 
Hon.  John  B.  Henderson, 

United  States  Senate. 

The  court  convened  at  the  usual  hour,  Henderson  in 
his  seat.  Chandler  announced  that  his  colleague  (How 
ard)  had  been  delirious  all  day  yesterday  and  was  now 
so  ill  as  to  be  unable  to  be  present;  and,  as  was  antici 
pated,  the  court  adjourned  until  Saturday.  That  even 
ing,  another  interview  took  place  between  Henderson 
and  his  colleagues  of  the  House  (except  Anderson). 
The  senator  told  them  that  he  could  not  comply  with 


THE    ACQUITTAL  527 

their  request  without  a  degree  of  humiliation  and  shame 
to  which  he  was  satisfied  they  would  not  wish  to  subject 
him.  They  agreed  to  reconsider  their  request,  but-  still 
insisted  that  duty  required  the  senator  to  cast  a  vote  of 
guilty  on  one  article,  if  that  vote  were  found  indis 
pensable  to  secure  a  conviction.  Henderson  pointed  out 
the  difficulty  attending  this  suggestion;  senators  were 
so  reticent  he  could  not  ascertain  their  position,  and  they 
were  liable  to  change  their  minds  at  any  moment  before 
the  final  vote  was  taken.  He  exhibited  a  list  of  thirty- 
six  senators,  beside  himself  and  Wade,  who,  he  thought, 
would  vote  for  conviction  on  the  eleventh  article,  and 
thereby  the  President  might  be  removed  without  his 
vote.  The  delegation  assured  him  that  conviction  was 
all  they  wanted,  and  that  he  need  not  resign  unless  his 
vote  was  absolutely  indispensable  and  he  could  not  bring 
himself  to  cast  it  for  the  eleventh  article.  He  promised 
to  ascertain  the  probable  event  on  one  or  two  articles; 
see  senators  Anthony,  Sprague,  Willey  and  Van  Winkle, 
and,  if  they  would  agree  to  vote  for  the  eleventh  article, 
then  the  desire  of  his  Missouri  friends  would  be  accom 
plished  and  he  would  retain  his  seat.  He  felt,  so  he  said, 
inclined  to  vote  for  the  single  clause  of  the  eleventh 
article  which  charged  that  the  President  attempted  to 
prevent  Stanton  from  resuming  the  office  of  Secretary 
of  War,  but  the  Senate  had  wrongly  refused  to  permit 
a  vote  to  be  taken  on  the  separate  clauses,  and  a  vote 
for  the  article  entire  would  seem  to  endorse  the  Emory 
article  which  no  one  approved;  he  would  give  them  his 
final  conclusions  by  twelve  o'clock  to-morrow. 
The  next  day  he  received  the  following  telegram : 


528    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

St.  Louis,  May  13,  1868. 
Hon.  John  B.  Henderson : 

There  is  intense  excitement  here.  Meeting  called  for 
tomorrow  night.  Can  your  friends  hope  that  you  will  vote 
for  the  eleventh  article  ?  If  so,  all  will  be  well. 

E.  W.  Fox. 

Samuel  S.  Cox,  an  old-time  political  comrade  of  Hen 
derson's,  at  this  time  out  of  Congress  and  residing  in 
the  city  of  New  York,  who  had  been  sent  for  on  the  idea 
that  he  might  influence  the  senator  in  the  President's 
favour,  happened  to  call  on  him  just  after  the  receipt 
of  the  foregoing  message.  As  Cox  states :  i  i  His  sense 
of  justice  had  been  affronted  by  this.  In  this  mood  the 
writer  found  him.  He  seemed  to  want  advice  and  coun 
sel.  It  was  not  long  before  the  writer  was  requested  to 
pen  and  send  a  telegram"  in  answer. 

E.  W.  Fox,  St.  Louis,  Mo. 

Say  to  my  friends  that  I  am  sworn  to  do  impartial  jus 
tice  according  to  law  and  evidence,  and  I  will  try  to  do  it 
like  an  honest  man. 

J.  B.  Henderson. 

This  act  seems  to  have  restored  his  usual  sense  of 
honour  and  propriety,  and  he  wrote  a  letter  to  the 
representatives  of  his  state,  informing  them  that  he 
could  not  ascertain  the  probable  outcome  of  the  trial; 
that  he  could  not,  consistently  with  the  obligations  of 
his  oath,  resign;  and  that  he  had  resolved  to  remain 
at  his  post  and  to  do  his  duty  as  it  was  given  him  to 
know  it. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  529 

"If  I  resign  and  a  successor  should  come,  perhaps  a 
proper  sense  of  delicacy  would  prevent  him  from  violating 
every  precedent  on  this  subject  by  casting  a  vote  at  all.  .  .  . 
If  ho  voted  affirmatively  and  thus  secured  conviction,  this 
manner  of  obtaining  conviction  would  likely  neutralize  in 
the  end  every  advantage  to  be  derived  from  impeach 
ment."* 

Following  the  example  of  the  Missouri  delegation, 
the  eleven  Republican  members  of  the  House  from 
Illinois  held  a  meeting  and  discussed  a  proposition,  sup 
ported,  doubtless,  by  Logan,  Farnsworth  and  Wash- 
burne  to  unite  in  a  letter  to  Trumbull  "with  a  view 
to  influence  his  vote  for  conviction,  or  of  inducing  him 
to  withhold  his  vote  if  he  could  not  vote  for  conviction. ' ' 
But,  in  this  instance,  so  much  opposition  was  made  by 
five  of  the  delegation  that  no  letter  was  sent— a  failure, 
to  which  the  apprehension  that  such  a  missive  would 
have  met  with  a  sterner  reception  than  the  one  sent  to 
Henderson,  may  have  contributed.! 

The  method  of  coercing  wavering  senators  by  pres 
sure  from  home  was  set  on  foot  systematically  by  an 
organization  of  Republican  members  of  Congress  called 
"the  Union  Congressional  Committee."  Senators  as 
well  as  representatives  belonged  to  it,  and  senators  as 
well  as  representatives  showed  no  hesitation  in  under 
taking  work  of  this  kind.  Robert  C.  Schenck  was  chair 
man,  and,  on  the  twelfth,  sent  to  every  state  having  a 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  2471.  Henderson's  testimony  before 
Com.  of  Investigation.  S.  S.  Cox's  Three  Decades,  p.  594.  Rowland's 
and  Gravely's  testimony  before  Com.  of  Investigation,  quoted  in  Butler's 
report  of  managers,  Cong.  Doc.,  No.  75. 

t  As  to  Trumbull  see  Globe,  id.,  p.  2529. 
34 


530    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

senator  whose  position  was  not  definitely  ascertained 
the  following  circular  telegram : 

Washington,  D.  C.  May  12,  1868. 

Great  danger  to  the  peace  of  the  country  and  the  Repub 
lican  cause  if  impeachment  fails.  Send  to  your  senators 
public  opinion  by  resolutions,  letters  and  delegations. 

Robert  C.  Schenck,  Chairman. 

And  they  came — from  Maine,  from  Illinois,  from 
Kansas,  from  Rhode  Island,  from  West  Virginia,  from 
Tennessee— resolutions,  letters,  telegrams,  delegations, 
all  demanding  the  conviction  of  the  President  and  de 
nouncing  the  least  hesitation  on  the  part  of  his  Republi 
can  triers.  Even  Holden,  the  first  of  Andrew  John 
son's  provisional  governors— rewarded  for  his  deser 
tion  with  the  governorship  of  his  Africanized  state— 
joined  in  hounding  on  the  impeachment  and  flashed 
over  the  wire  the  words,  "Strike  the  usurper  from  his 
seat."  The  general  conference  of  the  Methodist  Epis 
copal  Church  being  in  session  at  Chicago  on  the  four 
teenth  of  May — composed  of  nine  bishops  and  two  hun 
dred  and  forty-two  delegates  "  representing, "  as  was 
stated,  ' '  more  than  eleven  hundred  thousand  members ' ' 
—after  referring  in  a  preamble  to  "painful  rumors  in 
circulation  that  partly  by  unworthy  jealousies  and 
partly  by  corrupt  influence,  pecuniary  and  otherwise, 
most  actively  employed,  efforts  are  being  made  to  in 
fluence  senators  improperly  and  prevent  them  from  per 
forming  their  high  duty,"  thought  it  no  blasphemy 
unanimously  to  "appoint  an  hour  of  prayer  from  nine 
to  ten  A.  M.  to-morrow  to  invoke  humbly  and  earnestly 


THE    ACQUITTAL  531 

the  mercy  of  God  upon  our  nation  and  beseech  Him  to 
save  our  senators  from  error,  and  so  influence  them  that 
their  decision  shall  be  in  truth  and  righteousness. "  The 
action  of  this  powerful  ecclesiastical  organization  was 
telegraphed  immediately  to  the  seat  of  government, 
and  on  the  same  day  its  example  was  followed  by  the 
African  M.  E.  Church  in  conference  at  Washington ;  the 
coloured  brethren,  however,  employing  no  pious'  cir 
cumlocution  but  addressing  their  prayer  for  the  convic 
tion  of  the  President,  not  to  the  Deity,  but  directly  to  the 
Senate.*  The  managers,  also,  in  this  stirring  campaign 
of  intimidation  could  not  be  idle.  Their  legitimate 
work  being  done,  they  organized  themselves  into  an 
Inquisition.  Certain  newspaper  correspondents  were 
so  positive  about  the  opinion  of  certain  senators  and 
the  consequent  acquittal  of  the  President  as  to  arouse 
painful  suspicions ;  the  Chief  Justice  had  given  another 
dinner,  and  several  senators  were  tracked  coming  away 
from  the  entertainment  at  a  late  hour ;  and  a  secret  ex 
amination  of  reporters  for  the  press  was  immediately 
begun.  Stanton,  of  course,  was  at  work  day  and  night. 
Every  rumour  of  defection  focussed  in  the  War  Office ; 
and,  sitting  there  in  seclusion,  the  secretary  marked 
down  each  doubtful  senator.  A  military  officer,  likely 
to  be  of  influence  because  of  previous  intimacy  with  the 
suspected  man,  was  summoned  to  headquarters  and 
given  his  instructions.  Generals/  deprived  of  their 
command  and  sore  against  the  President,  were  told  that 
the  friends  of  Andrew  Johnson  were  engaged  in  tamper- 

*  See  Prefatory  note  and  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  speech  of  Doo- 
little,  pp.  2521,  2525. 


532    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ing  with  some  particular  senator,  and  thereby  induced 
to  go  and  tamper  with  him  in  their  turn.  Grant,  with 
habitual  caution,  kept  silent  in  the  background;  but  it 
was  published  abroad  everywhere  that  the  prospective 
candidate  for  President  was  "of  the  opinion  that  An 
drew  Johnson  ought  to  be  removed. ' '  All  his  old  cronies 
in  the  army  proclaimed  it.  Logan  made  no  secret  of  it. 
AYashburne  was  now  among  the  fiercest  of  the  fierce  in 
pushing  on  the  movement.  The  silent,  undeviating 
course  of  Roscoe  Conkling  on  every  question  arising 
during  the  trial  is  strong  evidence  of  Grant 's  inveteracy 
against  the  President.  From  the  very  first  day,  Conk- 
ling  displayed  a  stubborn  hostility  against  the  accused 
entirely  foreign  to  his  character  as  a  statesman  and  a 
lawyer,  and  wholly  unaccountable  upon  any  other 
hypothesis  than  that  he  was  disposed  to  comply  with  the 
wishes  of  the  man  whose  devoted  supporter  he  was  and 
continued  to  be  afterwards  through  every  vicissitude 
of  fortune.  He  said  nothing.  He  delivered  no  opinion. 
He  filed  none.  He  voted  guilty  sans  phrase.  The  one 
instance,  in  which  he  veered  round  to  the  conservatives 
on  the  question  of  the  admission  of  the  letters  of  the 
Cabinet  officers  corroboratory  of  the  President 's  version 
of  the  colloquy  between  himself  and  General  Grant, 
tells  the  same  story ;  he  would  not  have  his  hero  appear 
to  shrink  from  any  testimony  seemingly  adverse  to  him 
on  a  question  of  veracity. 

The  inclinations  of  the  General  of  the  army  once 
ascertained  determined  the  direction  of  the  efforts  of 
a  host  of  officers.  Aides-de-camp,  they  rushed  hither 
and  thither  as  if  upon  the  battle-field,  delivering  re- 


THE    ACQUITTAL  533 

ports  concerning  the  whereabouts  and  doings  of  cer 
tain  senators,  or  directing  their  fire  directly  upon  the 
men  themselves,  or  laying  down  the  lines  of  the  siege 
to  be  made  upon  them.  Never,  perhaps,  were  men  sub 
jected  to  such  an  ordeal  of  pressure  as  were  the  four 
or  five  senators  reported  doubtful  during  the  days  that 
elapsed  from  the  Monday  when  the  Senate  deliberated, 
to  the  Saturday  when  the  Senate  voted.  Henderson 
having  been  given  up,  the  West  Virginia  senators  were 
allowed  no  peace.  Willey,  it  was  reported,  was  sure 
on  the  second  article,  but  Van  Winkle  seemed  wrapped 
up  in  impenetrable  dubitation.*  Both,  it  was  said, 
were  engaged  in  writing  opinions  without  having 
reached  any  conclusion.  It  was  suspected  that,  if  both 
votes  of  the  state  were  necessary  to  prevent  conviction, 
both  would  be  forthcoming;  whereas,  if  one  would 
suffice  for  acquittal,  the  other  would  go  the  other  way. 
At  length,  it  was  announced  that  Van  Winkle  must  have 
written  himself  into  a  state  of  mind  favourable  to  the 
President,  as  he  was  consorting  with  Trumbull  and  din 
ing  with  Chase.  A  determined  effort  was  then  made 
to  rescue  Willey  who,  it  was  discovered,  had  been  able 
to  write  nothing,  and  showed  symptoms  of  a  teachable 
disposition.  He  was  a  prominent  Methodist,  and  it  was 
said  that  that  Church  had  him  prominently  in  her  eye 
when  she  "  unanimously "  resorted  to  the  Throne  of 
Grace.  He  was  kept  under  constant  care,  supervision 

*  Pomeroy  testified  before  the  managers  that  Van  Winkle  told  him 
in  the  interval  between  Monday  and  Saturday  that  "  his  mind  was  to 
vote  for  conviction  on  the  eleventh  article  and  was  preparing  an  opinion 
to  sustain  his  vote."  Butler's  Report,  p.  32.  • 


534    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

and  drill  up  to  the  last  hour ;  and,  after  all,  went  to  the 
testing  a  riddle  to  his  trainers  and  a  perplexity  to  the 
believer  in  the  efficacy  of  prayer. 

Senator  Fowler  was  subjected  to  a  somewhat  different 
course  of  treatment.  An  early  offspring  of  the  Brown- 
low  government,  his  vote  had  been  considered  from  the 
first  a  fixed  asset  of  the  party.  But  it  turned  out  that 
his  electors  had  not  been  sufficiently  circumspect.  He 
was  not  a  man  very  easy  to  rule.  A  professor  in  a  Nash 
ville  college,  a  pious  man,  an  unostentatious  citizen,  on 
the  Union  and  slavery  he  had  convictions  of  his  own 
which  at  the  outbreak  of  secession  whirled  him  into  un 
looked-for  prominence  in  the  stormy  atmosphere  of  his 
state.  But,  although  after  their  going  over  to  negro 
suffrage,  he  made  himself  agreeable  to  the  Brownlowites 
by  his  advocacy  of  that  measure,  he  still  cherished  an 
admiring  remembrance  of  Andrew  Johnson's  career 
as  a  Unionist  and  Military  Governor,  and  he  could  not 
shake  off  the  conviction  that  it  was  impossible  so  heroic 
a  patriot  should  have  become  the  traitor  the  senator's 
party  associates  represented  him  to  be.  Great  were  the 
surprise  and  indignation  of  the  radicals,  in  and  out  of 
his  state,  when,  during  the  trial,  he  was  found  voting 
with  the  conservative  senators  on  incidental  questions, 
and,  after  the  trial,  either  keeping  a  suspicious  silence, 
or  talking  in  a  manner  most  exasperating  by  reason  of 
its  inconclusiveness.  Him,  therefore,  the  official  manip 
ulators  of  the  senatorial  laggards,  wisely  concluding 
that  ordinary  methods  of  persuasion  would  be  thrown 
away,  undertook  to  scare  back  into  the  ranks  by  a  dis- 
interment  of  his  record.  As  long  ago  as  the  tenth  of 


THE    ACQUITTAL  535 

January— at  a  meeting  of  the  Union  Congressional 
Committee— it  was  recalled  that  Fowler  made  certain 
remarks  on  the  subject  of  impeachment.  His  words 
were  not  taken  down  at  the  time — the  minutes  disclos 
ing  only  the  bare  fact  that  certain  senators  and  repre 
sentatives  had  spoken.  To  a  copy  of  the  minutes  of 
this  meeting,  William  D.  Kelley  of  the  House  now 
appended  a  report  of  Fowler's  remarks;  certifying 
that  it  was  his  '  *  recollection  of  their  tenor  and 
phraseology/'  and,  further,  that  the  senator  had 
"frequently  pressed  the  same  views  upon  him  and 
upon  others  in  his  presence."  He  makes  Fowler 
advocate  the  impeachment  and  removal  of  Andrew 
Johnson  as  absolutely  necessary  to  prevent  blood 
shed  in  the  South,  restore  peace  to  the  country,  and 
the  enforcement  of  the  laws.  The  accuracy  of  his 
version  is  certified  to  by  Robert  C.  Schenck  and  seven 
others  who  were  present  at  the  meeting.  This  docu 
ment*  —minutes,  speech _and  .certifying  signatures— was 
printed;  a  copy  sent  to  Fowler  on  the  evening  of  the 
fifteenth,  and  the  next  morning— the  day  the  vote  was 
to  be  taken — it  appeared  in  the  radical  organs  in  flaming 
colours.  The  implicated  senator  afterwards  denounced 
the  speech  as  a  forgery ;  declaring  in  the  Senate :  "I  did 
not  utter  one  single  sentence  that  Kelley  has  coined.  He 
neither  gives  the  spirit  nor  the  connection  nor  the  object 
of  my  remarks";  stating  further  that  his  allusion  to 
impeachment  was  only  for  the  purpose  of  stimulating 
the  committee  to  more  strenuous  efforts  to  carry  the 

*  The  document  will  be  found  in  the  speech  of  the  senator  cited  infra 
and  in  Butler's  Report  of  Managers,  printed  as  No.  75,  pp.  28-9. 


536    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

state  of  Alabama;  that,  since  Congress  had  failed  to 
impeach  Andrew  Johnson  who  was  a  man  of  power  and 
desired  the  success  of  his  policy,  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
committee  to  combat  him  in  the  open  field  of  the  state ; 
that  if  they  failed  to  carry  the  state  the  fault  would  be 
their  own.  Whatever  may  be  the  truth  on  this  par 
ticular  matter  in  dispute,  the  underlying  motive  of  the 
whole  proceeding  becomes  manifest  when  we  hear  the 
balance  of  the  senator 's  story : 

"A  few  hours  after  the  forgery  came  to  me,  three  per 
sons  visited  my  rooms  to  poll  my  vote.  I  detected  their 
sinister  motives  by  a  false  and  contradictory  statement  of 
one  of  them,  and  the  arrogance,  insincerity  and  weak  pre 
sumption  of  another.  I  shall  not  stop  to  speak  of  the 
ungentlemanly  conduct  of  the  chaplain  of  the  company, 
who  seemed  thoroughly  in  the  interest  of  the  revolutionary 
leaders.  Those  men  left  disappointed.  I  met  the  reverend 
meddler  the  next  morning  in  the  Capitol,  and  he  threatened 
the  investigation  of  the  inquisition,  the  exposure  and  ex 
pulsion  from  the  Senate.  I  will  only  add  that  the  same 
threat  had  been  made  by  others." 

They  might  badger  the  Tennessee  senator ;  they  could 
get  no  satisfaction  out  of  him.  Over  him,  to  the  last, 
they  hovered  between  hope  and  fear.  For,  as  he  his 
torically  stated :  "  I  expressed  no  opinion  of  any  article 
involved  in  the  trial  of  the  President  until  the  Chief 
Justice  asked  my  decision. " 

With  Grimes,  Fessenden  and  Trumbull  outspoken  for 
acquittal;  with  Henderson  despaired  of;  with  Van 
Winkle  and  Willey  see-sawing  between  "  Guilty "  and 

*  Fowler's  speech,  Glole,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  pp.  4507,  4510. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  537 

Guilty ";  with  Fowler  stubbornly  non-committal: 
the  full  brunt  of  the  struggle  turned  at  last  on  the  one 
remaining  doubtful  senator— Edmund  G.  Ross.  That 
a  senator  from  Kansas  should  ever  be  a  source  of  appre 
hension  to  the  radicals  seemed  like  a  malignant  stroke 
of  fate.  As  Sumner  testified  before  the  managers :  "It 
was  a  very  clear  case,  especially  for  a  Kansas  man.  .  .  . 
I  did  not  think  that  a  Kansas  man  could  quibble  against 
his  country. ' '  Just  at  the  close  of  the  first  session  of 
the  thirty-ninth  Congress  (July  25,  1866),  Boss  took 
his  seat  in  the  Senate  at  the  same  time  with  Joseph  H. 
Fowler.  He  was  appointed  by  the  governor  to  fill  the 
place  of  James  H.  Lane,  who  died  by  his  own  hand  on 
the  eleventh  of  that  month,  and  who  enjoyed  in  life 
so  curious  an  intimacy  with  Andrew  Johnson;  and  he 
was  subsequently  elected  by  the  legislature  to  fill  out 
Lane 's  unexpired  term.  We  have  his  own  authority  for 
stating  that  he  was  "baptized  in  politics  in  the  old 
Abolition  party  in  1844,"  and  "led  a  colony  to  Kansas 
in  1856."  He  entered  the  ranks  of  the  Union  army  as 
a  private  soldier,  and  served  with  gallantry  and  well- 
earned  promotion  during  the  war.  He  was  unknown 
to  the  country  at  the  time  of  his  entrance  into  the  Senate 
(he  had  then  reached  his  fortieth  year),  and,  since  his 
admission,  he  had  contented  himself,  except  at  an  early 
period  when  he  read  a  declaration  of  his  adherence  to 
the  radical  policy,  in  giving  a  silent  vote  for  all  the 
political  measures  of  the  Republicans ;  simply  following 
in  this  respect  the  example  of  his  older  and  more  ex 
perienced  colleague.  The  possibility  of  defection  on  his 

*  Butler's  Report  ut  supra,  p.  30. 


538    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

part  in  the  fight  with  the  administration  never  dawned 
upon  the  mind  of  the  most  nervous  radical.  Yet,  some 
how,  from  the  beginning  of  the  pending  impeachment, 
his  conduct  had  been  eccentric.  When  the  Senate  re 
solved  to  non-concur  in  the  suspension  of  Stanton  by  a 
vote  of  thirty-five,  including  Fessenden,  Fowler,  Trum- 
bull  and  Van  Winkle,  the  Kansas  senator,  though  in 
his  seat,  did  not  vote ;  owing,  it  was  said  at  the  time,  to 
a  quarrel  with  the  Secretary  of  War.  On  the  other 
hand,  when  the  more  decisive  action  declaring  the  re 
moval  of  the  same  officer  unlawful  was  taken,  he  voted 
with  the  majority.  During  the  trial,  on  incidental  ques 
tions  he  was  so  often  found  with  the  conservatives  as  to 
excite  curiosity,  though  not  so  invariably  as  to  excite 
alarm.  When  the  trial  was  about  half  over  (so  Sumner 
testified)  he  approached  that  senator  for  the  first  time 
in  his  life  and  volunteered  the  information  that,  not 
withstanding  these  equivocal  votes,  he  expected  to  vote 
with  Sumner  in  the  end.*  After  the  trial  was  over,  he 
himself  confessed  in  open  Senate,  "to  having  enter 
tained  doubts  on  the  eleventh  and  other  articles  until  a 
few  days  before  the  vote  was  taken, ' '  and  then,  as  he  ex 
pressed  it,  he  resolved  the  question  in  his  own  mind  by 
giving  his  country  the  benefit  of  his  doubts ;  that  it  was 
his  intention  to  support  a  portion  of  the  articles— an 
intention  he  communicated  to  "numbers  of  those  who 
approached  him  on  the  subject,"  but,  he  emphatically 
added,  "no  man  had  from  me  a  positive  assurance  that 
I  would  vote  for  conviction  or  acquittal ' '  before  Thurs 
day,  the  fourteenth,  t  Nevertheless,  he  was  claimed  by 

*  Butler's  Report,  ut  supra,  p.  30. 

f  Speech  in  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  2599. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  539 

both  sides  with  almost  equal  positiveness ;  and  he  cer 
tainly  succeeded  up  to  the  very  last  in  keeping  both 
sides  in  a  fever  of  suspense.    During  this  week,  Wash 
ington  was  crowded  with  all  sorts  of  people  from  all 
parts  of  the  country— every  one  intent  upon  the  impend 
ing  result;  and  this  hitherto  undistinguished  senator 
moved  along  among  them,  the  target  of  every  eye;  his 
rooms  beset  by  his  radical  constituents,  associates  and 
friends  wild  to  gain  some  satisfactory  inkling  of  his 
mind.     His  outgoings  and  incomings,  his  companions 
and   his   convivialities,   his   breakfast,   his   dinner,   his 
lodgings,  were  marked  and  set  down  in  note-books;  his 
name  speeding  over  the  wires,  back  and  forth,  to  and 
from  all  points  of  the  compass,  and  ringing  from  every 
one's  mouth  in  all  quarters  of  the  swarming,  simmer 
ing,   half-delirious  capital.     Wrapped  in  the  solitude 
of   his    own    impenetrability,    he    calmly   watched    the 
raging  eddies  of  which  he  was  the  centre.     His  political 
pedigree  and  his  domestic  affiliations  were  probed  from 
top  to  bottom.    It  was  discovered  that  from  the  time  of 
his  election,  and  even  before,  he  was  mixed  up  in  some 
unexplained  manner  with  the  business  of  the  Indian 
Bureau  out  in  Kansas;  that  Thomas  Ewing,  Jr.,  who 
was  the  attorney  of  certain  contractors  for  Indian  sup 
plies,  was  friendly  to  him;  that  Perry  Fuller,  an  enter 
prising  Indian  agent  and  for  a  long  time  his  friend  and 
supporter,  was  the  son-in-law  of  the  woman  at  wrhose 
house  he  lodged,  and  whose  remaining  daughter,  living 
at  home,   was  Vinnie  Ream,   the   sculptress,   now  en 
gaged   in   modeling   the   statue   of   Abraham   Lincoln, 
under  a  contract  with  the  government,  in  a  room  fur- 


540    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

nished  her  in  the  crypt  of  the  capitol.  Browning,  the 
Secretary  of  the  Interior,  in  whose  department  was  the 
Indian  Bureau ;  Taylor  of  Tennessee,  the  Commissioner 
of  Indian  affairs  by  appointment  of  the  President ;  Ful 
ler  and  Ewing: — were  all  known  as  supporters  of  the 
President  and  ready  to  do  their  utmost  for  his  acquittal. 
Miss  Beam — hardly  more  than  a  girl  when,  in  July, 
1866,  she  was  awarded  her  valuable  contract — proved 
herself  then  an  adept  in  the  practice  of  influencing  con 
gressmen;  the  award  passing  the  House  without  any 
opposition  and  the  Senate  by  a  large  majority,  in  the 
face  of  the  active  hostility  of  Sumner  and  Howard,  both 
of  whom  impugned  the  capacity  and  skill  of  the  artist. 
It  was  bruited  about  that  the  Kansas  senator  was  in  the 
habit  of  frequenting  her  studio  and  talking  of  the  im 
peachment,  and  that  she  was  using  her  influence  in  per 
suading  him  to  vote  for  acquittal ;  and,  on  the  faith  of 
these  rumours,  George  W.  Julian  was  commissioned  by 
several  of  his  fellow  members  to  warn  her  against  such 
a  course  of  conduct.  It  was  stated  and  restated  on  the 
floor  of  the  House  that  Julian  "threatened  her  that  if 
she  did  not  use  her  influence  for  conviction,  it  would  be 
the  worse  for  her. ' '  The  threat  Julian  denied ;  but  he 
admitted  that  he  talked  to  her  on  the  matter  and  that 
she  denied  the  report  of  her  mission,  telling  him  Ross 
was  going  to  vote  for  conviction,  as  Ross  himself  told 
him  on  the  following  day.* 

At  length,  the  leading  impeachers  could  stand  this 
suspense  no  longer.  They  determined  in  caucus  (sen 
ators  as  well  as  representatives  attending)  to  force  the 

*  Globe.  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  pp.  2674-5. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  541 

delinquent  to  speak.  That  stout  radical,  Samuel  C. 
Pomeroy,  known  to  fame  in  1864  as  the  author  of  the 
"Pomeroy  Circular"  and,  after  the  Credit-Mobilier 
scandal,  under  the  sobriquet  of  "Subsidy  Pom"— he 
must  tackle  his  rebellious  younger  brother  and  teach 
him  to  obey  the  curb.  It  was  on  Wednesday,  the  thir 
teenth,  that  Pomeroy  made  his  first  attack.  Noticing 
that  his  colleague  had  gone  into  the  room  of  the 
sergeant-at-arms  in  the  dangerous  company  of  senator 
Trumbull  and  following  him  there,  he  found  the  two 
in  animated  conversation  on  the  subject  of  impeach 
ment.  Waiting  until  the  interview  was  over  and  Trum 
bull  gone,  he  took  Ross  into  a  corner  of  the  room  and 
proceeded  to  put  him  to  the  question.  He  had  pro 
vided  himself  with  the  printed  list  of  senators  com 
monly  in  use  for  taking  the  yeas  and  nays,  and  upon 
it  he  had  noted  opposite  the  name  of  every  senator 
counted  on  for  conviction,  including  his  own,  the  arti 
cles  it  was  supposed  he  intended  to  vote  for.  He  com 
menced  operations  by  asking  his  partner  plumply  and 
without  apology,  how  he  was  going  to  vote  on  the  im 
peachment.  Ross  replied  that  he  was  uncertain,  that 
he  would  probably  vote  for  some  of  the  articles  and  not 
for  the  others.  Pomeroy  said  that  he  was  canvassing 
the  Senate,  that  he  had  got  the  names  of  thirty-five 
senators,  pledged,  every  one  of  them  in  their  own  hand 
writing,  for  conviction,  and  that  he  wanted  Ross's 
pledge  to  make  conviction  sure.  Ross  asking  to  see 
the  list,  the  veteran  canvasser  produced  it ;  when,  among 
other  names,  Ross  noticed  his  own  set  down  for  convic 
tion  on  the  first,  second,  third,  eighth  and  eleventh 


542    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

articles.  Upon  his  expressing  surprise  at  this  sum 
mary  disposition  of  his  vote,  Pomeroy  claimed  that  from 
previous  conversations  he  supposed  those  were  the  arti 
cles  his  colleague  would  vote  for.  Perceiving  that  all 
the  marks  on  the  paper  were  in  the  same  handwriting, 
and  suspecting  therefore  that  the  whole  thing  was 
guess-work  and  a  plan  to  entrap  him  into  a  written 
committal  for  conviction,  Ross  with  some  asperity  repu 
diated  his  colleague's  authority  to  put  him  down  on  the 
list  at  all  either  for  or  against  conviction,  and  then  ex 
plicitly  defined  his  position  as  follows : 

"That  I  should  probably  vote  for  conviction  on  the  first 
article,  as  that,  in  my  judgment,  contained  all  there  was 
in  the  whole  bill  of  indictment;  that  the  eighth  I  should 
not  support,  and  that  as  to  all  the  others  enumerated,  I 
was  undecided ;  that  their  fate  depended  very  much  on  that 
of  the  first  article.  If  that  were  carried  I  said  to  him, 
these  would  be  very  much  strengthened  thereby,  but  if  that 
were  lost,  in  my  opinion  all  the  others  went  with  it." 

Thereupon,  Pomeroy,  taking  a  pencil,  drew  a  circle 
around  the  eighth  to  indicate  that  Ross  would  not  sup 
port  it,  made  a  dot  over  the  others,  except  the  first,  to 
indicate  they  were  doubtful,  and  then  hied  himself  away. 
As  it  had  already  been  determined  in  caucus,  because 
of  the  refusal  of  Sherman,  Howe  and  others  to  vote 
for  the  first,  to  commence  the  vote  with  the  last,  Ross's 
equivocal  promise  did  not  meet  the  crisis.  Votes 
for  the  eleventh  article  were  what  was  wanted  and 
Pomeroy  went  after  his  colleague  once  again.  On  the 
night  of  Thursday,  the  fourteenth,  he  found  him  in  the 


THE    ACQUITTAL  543 

rooms  of  senator  Van  Winkle  with  Trumbull,  Hender 
son  and  Willey,  and,  unabashed  by  the  company  he 
was  in,  began  a  conversation  on  the  result.  In  answer 
to  doubts  expressed  by  Henderson,  he  insisted  that  con 
viction  was  certain  on  the  eleventh  article,  because  he 
had  conversed  with  a  sufficient  number  of  senators  to 
know  that  it  would  be  carried  by  one  vote.  Ross  in 
quired  if  he  was  numbered  among  the  thirty-six,  and 
Pomeroy  answered  in  the  affirmative.  The  Kansas  sen 
ator  then  repeated  the  conversation  of  the  day  before, 
and  assured  his  colleague  that  he  need  not  count  on  his 
vote  for  conviction  under  any  circumstances.  That  same 
evening  a  member  of  the  Kansas  legislature  called  on 
Eoss  ' l  to  talk  the  matter  over, ' '  and  Ross  told  him  that 
he  was  opposed  to  bringing  on  a  vote  at  this  time ;  that 
11  the  best  thing  was  postponement,  the  next  best  con 
viction."  The  next  day  (Friday)  a  telegram  arrived 
from  Kansas  addressed  to  both  senators  of  that  state,  as 
follows : 

Leaven  worth,   May   14th.      Kansas   has  heard   the   evi 
dence,  and  demands  the  conviction  of  the  President. 

.D.  R.  Anthony,  and  1000  others. 

Ross  called  at  the  residence  of  his  colleague  in  the 
evening  to  procure  a  copy  of  this  dispatch  and  stayed  to 
dinner.  Pomeroy  importuned  him  again,  and  he  replied 
as  before ;  admitting,  however,  that  the  eleventh  was  the 
strongest  article  and  that  he  was  freer  to  vote  for  that 
than  the  others.  As  late  as  half-past  eleven  that  night, 
he  was  seen  in  a  restaurant  with  Van  Winkle  and  Hen 
derson  by  a  friend  to  whom,  after  the  senators  were 


544    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

gone,  he  said  lie  thought  it  was  dangerous  to  take  a  vote 
in  the  morning  and  was  himself  in  favour  of  postpone 
ment  until  the  first  of  July.  Even  at  this  late  hour,  the 
inipeachers  gave  him  no  rest.  General  Sickles,  urged 
on  by  Stanton,  sought  him  at  his  lodgings  and  remained 
until  four  o  'clock  in  the  morning,  determined  to  see  him 
and  "save  him";  but  was  denied  the  opportunity 
by  Miss  Eeam  who  told  him,  at  last,  with  tears  and 
wringing  of  hands,  that  Ross  "would  support  the 
President."  Spies  traced  the  pestered  senator  to 
his  breakfast  that  morning  at  the  residence  of  Perry 
Fuller,  where  Henderson  was,  also,  a  guest;  and,  ten 
minutes  before  the  vote  was  taken,  in  the  lobby  of  the 
Senate  and  in  the  presence  of  Thaddeus  Stevens  who 
looked  grimly  on,  Pomeroy  bearded  his  colleague  for 
the  last  time,  warning  him  that  to  vote  otherwise  than 
for  conviction  would  be  his  political  death,  and  threat 
ening  that  a  vote  for  acquittal  would  be  investigated 
on  a  charge  of  bribery.  That  morning  Ross  had  sent 
the  following  reply  to  the  Anthony  telegram: 

Washington,  May  16. 
Gentlemen : 

I  do  not  recognize  your  right  to  demand  that  I  shall  vote 
either  for  or  against  conviction.  I  have  taken  an  oath  to 
do  impartial  justice  .  .  .  and  I  trust  I  shall  have  the  courage 
and  honesty  to  vote  according  to  the  dictates  of  my  judg 
ment  and  for  the  highest  good  of  my  country. 
To  D.  R.  Anthony  and  1000  others.  E.  G.  Ross. 

*  Correspondence  from  Topeka,  Kan.,  October  20,   1896,  to  the  Chi 
cago  Record;  reprinted  in  N.  Y.  Sun  of  October  25,  1896. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  545 

And,  before  the  day  was  over,  he  received  the  follow 
ing  spicy  but  not  fragrant  rejoinder: 

Leavenworth,  Kansas,  May  16,  1868. 

Hon.  E.  G.  Ross,  United  States  Senator,  Washington,  D.  C. 
Your  telegram  received.  Your  vote  is  dictated  by  Tom 
Ewing,  not  by  your  oath.  Your  motives  are  Indian  con 
tracts  and  greenbacks.  Kansas  repudiates  you  as  she  does 
all  perjurers  and  skunks. 

D.  R.  Anthony  and  Others.* 

The  most  astonishing  feature  of  this  crusade  against 
the  doubtful  senators  was  the  apparent  absence  of  any 
sense  of  its  impropriety  on  the  part  of  the  actors.  Such 
a  course  of  conduct,  undertaken  in  an  ordinary  prosecu 
tion  before  a  common  law  court  or  jury,  would  have  sub 
jected  the  perpetrators  to  the  reprobation  of  mankind 
as  well  as  to  an  indictment  for  felony,  and  would  have 
vitiated  any  verdict  obtained  by  such  disreputable 
means.  And  the  parties  engaging  in  any  such  enter 
prise  would  have  carried  on  their  operations  under  the 
cover  of  darkness  and  secrecy,  conscious  they  were 
violating  the  fundamental  principles  of  justice,  as  well 
as  the  commandment  of  the  law.  But,  here,  on  this 
world-stage,  before  this  high  tribunal,  in  this  historic 
state-trial,  every  thing  that  was  done  was  done  openly, 
publicly,  as  it  were  boastingly  and  defiantly,  without 
^shame  and  with  a  consciousness  of  impunity-,  if  not  of 
d^eisfing  well  19 f  the  country.  In  the  light  of  history 
*and  precedents,  it  may  be  true,  that  the  utmost  strict- 

*  Concerning  Ross,  see  his  speech  in  seH-vindicalioii^  GZoi£^_2cLjSess^ 
40th  Cong.,  p.  4513.      Cf.  Pomeroy's  testimony  before  managers,  quoted 
in  same  speech. 
35 


546    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ness  of  judicial  propriety  cannot  be  expected  from  a 
court  such  as  is  the  Senate  organized  for  the  trial  of  im 
peachments  ;  that  senators  must  be  allowed  freer  move 
ments  than  ordinary  judges;  may  act  on  testimony  they 
have  not  heard  and  arguments  they  have  not  listened 
to ;  pass  more  than  half  the  time  of  the  trial  outside  of 
the  tribunal,  as  one  of  the  senators  from  Illinois  notori 
ously  did  on  this  occasion,  and  reappear  only  at  times 
when  a  vote  against  the  accused  is  wanted.  It  may  be 
true  that  senators,  as  Sunnier  contended,  cannot  divest 
themselves  of  their  political  capacity;  have  a  right, 
therefore,  to  form  and  express  their  opinions  on  the 
guilt  or  innocence  of  the  President  before  hearing  the 
evidence;  and  may  look  upon  the  wearisome  trial  as  a 
concession  to  constitutional  forms  necessary  in  order  to 
reach  a  conclusion  already  predetermined ;  that  the  votes 
of  the  senators  on  impeachment  differ  in  no  respect 
from  their  votes  on  measures  of  legislation  and  that, 
therefore,  the  senators  being  equally  responsible  to  the 
people  must  be  answerable  to  popular  influence  and 
criticism  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other.  It  may  be  true 
that  from  the  very  nature  of  the  proceedings  it  is  impos 
sible  to  shut  out  political  and  personal  influences  which 
in  ordinary  courts  would  be  reprobated  as  illegitimate 
and  improper.  For  instance,  it  has  been  related  by  a 
writer  who  was  at  the  capital  during  these  days,  on  the 
authority  of  a  warm  friend  of  the  President,  that  some 
of  the  doubtful  senators  expressing  to  Grimes  their 
apprehensions  that  the  President,  if  acquitted,  might 
break  loose  in  some  high-handed  attempt  to  put  a  stop 
to  congressional  reconstruction,  Reverdy  Johnson 


THE    ACQUITTAL  547 

brought  about  a  casual  meeting  at  his  house  of  the  Pres 
ident  and  the  senator  without  the  foreknowledge  of 
either,  when  the  President  was  led  to  express  senti 
ments  negativing  any  such  notion— sentiments  subse 
quently  conveyed  by  the  senator  to  the  waverers  with 
the  desired  effect.*  Again :  according  to  a  memorandum 
which  General  Schofield  states  he  made  at  the  time 
(May,  1868),  he  called  upon  Mr.  Evarts,  at  the  request 
of  that  counsel  of  the  President,  on  the  twenty-first  of 
April,  /.  e.  the  day  after  the  testimony  on  the  trial  was 
closed  and  the  court  had  adjourned  over  to  the  twenty- 
second  to  hear  the  arguments.  Evarts  sounded  the  Gen 
eral  upon  the  question  of  his  acceptance,  should  the 
President  send  to  the  Senate  his  nomination  as  Secre 
tary  of  War;  representing  that  "a  majority  of  the  Re 
publicans  in  both  Houses  of  Congress  now  regret  the 
commencement  of  the  impeachment  proceedings,  since 
they  find  how  slight  is  the  evidence  of  guilty  intent"; 
that  "the  removal  of  the  President  for  political  reasons 
would  be  ruinous  to  the  party  and  cause  the  political 
death  of  every  senator  who  voted  for  it ' ' ;  that  such  was 
the  view  of  ' '  several  among  the  most  prominent  Repub 
lican  senators "  from  whom,  in  fact,  "came  the  sug 
gestion,"  which  the  counsel  had  made  to  the  General 
"in  order  that  the  Senate  might  vote  upon  the  Presi 
dent's  case  in  the  light  of  that  nomination."  And, 
understanding  "this  proposition  as  coming  originally 
from  the  Republican  side  of  the  Senate  and  as  being 
accepted  by  the  President  in  the  interest  of  peace  and 
for  the  purpose  of  securing  harmony  between  the  legis- 

*  Cox's  Three  Decades,  pp.  592-4.  ' 


548    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

lative  and  executive  departments  of  the  government, 
and  a  just  and  faithful  administration  of  the  laws, ' '  the 
General,  the  next  day,  ventured  so  far  as  to  say  he 
would  "deem  it  my  (his)  duty  to  say  nothing  on  the 
subject  of  accepting  or  declining  the  appointment  until 
the  Senate  acted  upon  it";— and,  on  the  twenty-fourth, 
the  President  sent  the  nomination  to  the  Senate  where, 
as  everybody  must  have  foreseen,  it  lay  unacted  upon 
until  the  result  of  the  trial  forced  Stanton  to  '  relinquish ' 
his  post.*  No  one  of  the  high  parties  engaged  in  these 
respective  maneuvres,  it  may  be  admitted,  even  so  much 
as  dreamed  they  were  violating  the  proprieties  of  a 
court  of  justice.  And,  as  we  are  saying,  such  may  be  the 
correct  view  of  trials  of  this  peculiar  character.  But 
—granting  all  this  for  the  sake  of  the  argument,  it  not 
being  necessary  to  insist  on  any  rigid  enforcement  of 
the  rules  governing  ordinary  judges— there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  under  the  Constitution  the  President  was 
entitled  to  the  actual- judgment  of  the  individual  sena 
tors  on  the  articles  presented  against  him.  If,  after 
hearing  the  testimony  and  the  arguments  of  counsel,  a 
senator— however  greatly  influenced  by  party  consider 
ations  or  by  personal  bias — became  convinced  that  the 
charges  were  not  proved;— any  and  all  attempts  to  in 
duce  or  coerce  him  to  declare  otherwise  because  of  party 
considerations  or  considerations  of  friendship  must  be 
classed  in  the  same  category  of  offences  as  tampering 
with  an  ordinary  court  or  jury  when  deliberating  on  a 
decision  or  verdict.  And  this  is  just  what  the  impeach- 
ers  in  this  case  did  with  reference  to  Henderson,  Fowler 

*  Schofield's  Forty-six  Years  in  the  Army,  p.  413  et  seq. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  549 

and  Ross.  They  did  not  seek  to  influence  their  reason 
on  the  facts  and  the  law.  They  cared  nothing  for  the 
conclusion  the  senators  had  actually  come  to.  They 
wanted  these  senators  to  vote  'Guilty'  whether  they 
thought  the  President  guilty  or  not.  And  to  this  end 
they  bent  all  their  energies.  To  them,  as  party  politi-- 
cians,  it  was  self-evident  that  Andrew  Johnson  ought 
to  be  removed  from  office.  The  mode  of  accomplishing 
this  necessary  end  was  immaterial.  Whether  Johnson 
was  guilty  or  not  as  charged  made  no  difference.  He 
was  guilty  of  rebellion  against  the  party  and  of  obstruct 
ing  its  policy.  Republican  senators  ought  not  "to 
quibble  with  their  country."  This  was  the  character 
and  style  of  pressure  brought  to  bear  upon  these  judges, 
in  a  cause  pending  before  them,  and  at  times  when  they 
were  out  of  court ;  and  if  such  a  course  of  conduct  does 
not  deserve  the  everlasting  condemnation  of  all  fair- 
minded  men— then  the  process  of  impeaching  and  try 
ing  a  President  of  the  United  ,:States  is  but  a  mockery 
I o^ 'forensic  justice;  th^  prostitution  of  a  sqlemn  judicial 
proceeding  into  a  soft  "of  by-election  of  a  new  President 
to  take  place  whenever  a  majority  of  the  House  and 
two-thirds  of  the  Senate  become  too  restive  under  the 
incumbent  for  the  time  being  to  await  the  expiration  of  — • 
the  constitutional  term. 


The  dragooning  of  senators  necessarily  ceased,  for 
a  time  at  least,  when,  at  noon,  on  Saturday,  the  six 
teenth  of  May,  Chief  Justice  Chase  took  the  chair  and 
called  the  High  Court  of  Impeachment  to  order.  Of 


•». 

J 


rf 


550    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

the  fifty-four  senators,  every  man  was  in'  his  seat 
except  one.  Howard  was  there,  but  Grimes,  it  was 
whispered,  had  been  taken  ill,  and  his  seat  was  empty. 
All  seven  of  the  managers  were  in  attendance.  Of  the 
President's  counsel,  Stanbery,  Evarts,  Nelson  and 
Groesbeck  appeared  in  their  place.  The  House  of 
Representatives  was  present  in  mass,  and  the  galleries 
were  packed.  The  prevailing  excitement  had  reached 
a  pitch  of  intensity  that  manifested  itself  by  a  stillness 
that  is  felt.  A  realizing  sense  that  the  deposition  of 
an  American  President  was  something  more  than  a 
politician 's  game  seemed  to  have  descended  at  last  upon 
the  entire  assemblage ;  and  that  the  destiny  of  the  great 
modern  Republic  might  be  hanging  on  the  decision  of 
the  hour.  Williams  of  Oregon,  the  mouthpiece  of  the 
caucus  which  the  majority  of  this  senatorial  court  had 
deemed  it  decorous  to  hold,  was  the  first  to  break  the 
spell.  He  moved  the  adoption  of  an  order  that  the 
Chief  Justice,  in  directing  the  secretary  to  read  the 
several  articles,  should  direct  him  to  read  the  last 
article  first,  upon  which  the  question  should  be  taken, 
and  thereafter  on  the  other  ten  successively  as  they 
stood.  The  motion  was  a  critical  one,  the  yeas  and 
nays  were  demanded,  and  the  order  was  agreed  to  by 
34  yeas  to  19  nays,  absent  1.  Wade  had  voted  at  last, 
but  the  required  two-thirds  were  not  quite  there.  Of 
the  seven  suspected  senators,  every  one  was  in  the  nega 
tive  except  the  absent  Grimes,  and  his  place  was  sup 
plied  by  Willey. 

Edmunds  moves  that  the  Senate  proceed  to  judg 
ment.      The  decisive  hour  has  come.      For  an  instant, 


THE    ACQUITTAL  551 

Fessenden  staves  it  off  by  begging  for  time  that  Grimes 
may  be  present.  But  Reverdy  Johnson  announces  in 
sentences  broken  by  the  strain  of  the  moment:  "The 
Senator  is  here.  I  have  sent  for  him.  He  is  down 
stairs.  He  will  be  in  the  Chamber  in  a  moment.  He 
is  here. ' '  And  Grimes,  faint  and  pale,  is  borne  through 
the  press  and  fairly  lifted  into  his  seat.  The  High 
Court  is  full  and  there  is  to  be  no  delay.  The  Chief 
Justice  directs  the  secretary  to  read  the  eleventh  arti 
cle  ;  and  it  is  read  to  impatient  and  unheeding  ears.  A 
thousand  hearts  stand  still  as  the  Chief  Justice  rises, 
grasps  the  sides  of  the  desk  before  him  and  utters  the 
words:  "Call  the  roll."  "Mr.  Anthony,"  the  clerk 
calls;  and  the  Rhode  Island  senator  stands  up  in  his 
place.  The  Chief  Justice  puts  the  question:  "Mr. 
Senator  Anthony,  how  say  you?  Is  the  respondent, 
Andrew  Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States,  guilty 
or  not  guilty  of  a  high  misdemeanor  as  charged  in  this 
article!'7  And,  looking  into  the  eyes  of  his  eminent 
friend,  the  senator  dispels  the  last  cloud  of  suspicion 
arising  from  their  intimacy  by  responding  'Guilty.' 
Two  Democrats  follow  with  their  anticipated  answers, 
when  Cameron  provokes  a  momentary  laugh  by  run 
ning  right  over  the  presiding  officer  with  his  eager 
*  Guilty'  before  the  question  is  half  out.  Seven  votes 
for  conviction  are  heard  in  quick  succession ;  then  three 
for  acquittal;  then  three  for  conviction;  when  at  the 
name  of  Fessenden  there  is  a  breathless  pause,  and  his 
'Not  Guilty,'  high  and  clear,  is  followed  by  a  sigh  of 
relief.  Fowler  comes  next.  The  tremendous  nervous 
strain  is  too  heavy  for  him  and  his  faltering  articula- 


552    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

tion  is  mistaken  for  the  word  l  Guilty ' ;  there  is  a  thrill 
of  triumph  or  despair,  when,  on  the  demand  of  the 
presiding  officer,  the  senator,  repeating  his  actual 
answer,  half  stuns  his  hearers  by  the  violence  of  the 
reaction.*  When  Grimes  is  called,  his  feebleness  is  so 
manifest  that  the  Chief  Justice  suggests  his  voting  in 
his  seat;  but  the  senator  is  bound  to  furnish  no  handle 
to  an  accusation  of  shamefacedness,  and  with  the  assist 
ance  of  friends  he  staggers  to  his  feet  to  declare  his  in 
dependence  as  a  judge.  Howard,  likewise,  declines  the 
same  privilege  and  conquers  his  physical  weakness  to 
record  in  the  most  conspicuous  manner  his  belief  in  the 
guilt  of  the  President.  The  eyes  of  the  managers  and 
of  the  Missouri  representatives  burn  with  a  wicked 
light  when  Henderson  is  called.  He  has  not  resigned; 
will  he  withhold  his  vote?  If  a  glimmer  of  hope  still 
flickers  in  their  breasts,  his  prompt  response  extin 
guishes  it  forever.  Ten  votes  for  conviction  follow, 
interspersed  with  five  for  acquittal,  when  the  clerk  calls 
a  fatal  name.  Twenty- four  'Guilties'  have  been  pro 
nounced  and  ten  more  are  certain  to  come.  Willey  is 
almost  sure  and  will  make  thirty-five.  Thirty-six  are 
needed,  and  with  this  one  vote  the  grand  consummation 
is  attained,  Johnson  is  out  and  Wade  in  his  place.  It 
is  a  singular  fact  that  not  one  of  the  actors  in  that  high 
scene  was  sure  in  his  own  mind  how  this  one  senator 
was  going  to  vote,  except,  perhaps,  himself.  "Mr. 
Senator  Ross,  how  say  you?"  the  voice  of  the  Chief 
Justice  rings  out  over  the  solemn  silence.  "Is  the 
respondent,  Andrew  Johnson,  guilty  or  not  guilty  of  a 

/  *  Julian's  Political  Recollections,  p.  317. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  553 

high  misdemeanor  as  charged  in  this  article? "  The 
Gliief  Justice  bends  forward,  intense  anxiety  furrowing 
his  broad  brow.  The  seated  associates  of  the  senator 
on  his  feet  fix  upon  him  their  united  gaze.  The  repre 
sentatives  of  the  people  of  the  United  States  watch  every 
movement  of  his  features.  The  whole  audience  listens 
for  the  coming  answer  as  it  would  have  listened  for 
the  crack  of  doom.  And  the  answer  comes,  full,  dis 
tinct,  definite,  unhesitating  and  unmistakable.  The 
words  'Xot  Guilty'  sweep  over  the  assembly,  and,  as 
one  man,  the  hearers  fling  themselves  back  into  their 
seats ;  the  strain  snaps ;  the  contest  ends ;  impeachment 
is  blown  into  the  air.  The  clerk  drones  on— Mr.  Sher 
man,  Mr.  Sprague,  Mr.  Stewart,  Mr.  Sumner;  but  the 
voices  of  the  respondents  are  unheeded.  The  two 
Nebraska  senators  fulfil  the  contract  of  their  admission 
and  duly  "reinforce"  the  majority,  but  they  might  as 
well  be  still  knocking  at  the  door.  "Would  that  Colo 
rado  were  in!"  TrumbulPs  vote  has  been  discounted. 
At  the  call  of  Van  Winkle  there  may  have  been  a  feeble 
afterglow  of  hope;  but  the  senator  votes  VXot  Guilty' 
with  no  sign  of  compassion.  Wade  comes  next;  no 
glittering  prize  dangling  before  his  eyes,  his  presidency 
pro  tern,  clattering  like  an  empty  clog  at  his  heels;  but 
he  votes  'Guilty,'  like  the  Duke  of  Orleans,  "in  his 
heart  and  conscience."  Willey's  vote  is  no  longer  a 
source  of  anxiety;  he  may  keep  to  his  conservatives 
now.  But  Willey,  once  his  colleague  has  made  acquittal 
sure,  reverts  irresistibly  to  the  majority  and  to  the 
Methodist  Church.  Williams,  Wilson,  Yates  follow 
like  the  last  drops  of  an  exhausted  vein,  and  the  roll- 


554    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

call  ends.  "Andy"  lias  escaped  conviction  by  one 
vote.  There  are  whisperings  between  senators;  rep 
resentatives  rush  hither  and  thither;  and  there  is  a 
bustling  and  a  rustling  in  the  galleries.  The  Chief 
Justice  quietly  directs  the  secretary  to  read  the  first 
article.  A  vote  on  the  first  article,  with  Sherman  and 
Howe  committed  against  it,  cannot  fail  to  prove  still 
more  disastrous  than  the  vote  just  taken ;  and  Williams, 
in  the  distraction  of  the  moment,  proposes  a  recess 
of  fifteen  minutes  for  consultation.  Such  a  breach 
of  judicial  decorum  finds,  even  at  this  high  crisis,  no 
favour,  and  the  senator  finally  moves  the  adjournment 
of  the  Senate  sitting  as  a  court  for  ten  days.  Pending 
this  motion,  the  announcement  of  the  result  on  the 
eleventh  article,  hitherto  overlooked  in  the  excitement, 
is  called  for;  and  the  Chief  Justice  proclaims  that 
thirty-five  senators  have  voted  "Guilty"  and  nineteen 
"Not  Guilty."  "Two-thirds  not  having  pronounced 
guilty,  the  President  is,  therefore,  acquitted  on  this 
article."  The  question  then  recurs  on  the  adjourn 
ment.  The  Chief  Justice  decides  the  motion  out  of 
order  on  the  ground  that  the  execution  of  an  order 
already  made  by  the  Senate  is  pending.  There  is  an 
appeal  from  the  decision;  and  the  Chief  Justice  is 
overruled.  Henderson,  then,  moves  to  adjourn  to  the 
first  of  July— a  proposition  which  receives  the  votes 
of  the  memorable  nineteen  and  Willey's  besides. 
McCreery's  common  sense  amendment  to  adjourn  with 
out  day  gets  but  six  votes.  The  Court  then  adjourns 
to  the  twentv-sixth. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  555 

Meanwhile,  the  audience  has  streamed  forth  from  the 
capitol,  and  the  tidings  of  the  President's  acquittal 
are  sent  careering  through  the  country  on  the  wings  of 
the  lightning.  At  all  the  commercial  centres,  the  news 
is  received  with  a  feeling  of  relief.  '  The  business 
men,  without  distinction  of  party,  had  always  depre 
cated  the  project  as  essentially  revolutionary  and  as 
destructive  of  the  material  interests  of  the  people. 
The  champions  of  the  President,  we  may  be  sure,  did 
not  leave  him  long  in  suspense.  During  the  actual  trial, 
his  secretaries  kept  him  informed  of  the  incidents  of 
every  day;  and,  on  the  decisive  occasion,  every  vote 
was  telegraphed  from  the  capitol  to  the  White  House. 
On  the  formal  announcement  of  the  result,  Stanbery 
and  ^elsoiL  escaped  from  the  Senate  chamber  and 
hastened  to  congratulate  their  client;  Nelson,  espec 
ially,  being  beside  himself  with  delight.  The  Presi 
dent  received  the  news  without  visible  emotion.  In 
deed,  throughout  the  whole  of  this  trying  time,  the 
demeanour,  carriage  and  conversation  of  Andrew  John 
son  were  enough  of  themselves  to  stamp  him  as  an  ex 
traordinary  man.  Confronted  by  an  overwhelming 
majority  of  both  Houses  of  Congress,  every  one  bent 
upon  turning  him  out  of  office;  outside  of  his  Cabinet 
and  a  few  prominent  office-holders,  with  hardly  a  ser 
viceable  friend  upon  whom  to  rely — he  appeared 
wholly  undismayed,  unfmrried,  serenely  confident  in  his 
ultimate  triumph.  While  every  one  else  was  going 
wild  with  excitement  on  his  account,  he  alone  was  calm 
and  cool.  His  prosecutors  appeared  over-heated  and 
nervous  at  all  times;  when  affairs  were  not  to  their 


tefco 
,/maj' 


556    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

mind  they  were  peevish,  irascible  and  abusive;  when 
affairs  were  on  the  mounting  hand  they  were  reckless, 
domineering,  coarsely  incontinent.  He,  on  the  con 
trary,  was  always  placid,  cheerful,  apparently  indif 
ferent.  When  the  prospect  was  blackest,  no  word  of 
despondency  or  petulance  escaped  his  lips ;  when  the 
horizon  lightened,  there  was  no  burst  of  undignified 
hilarity,  no  fitful  study  of  revenge,  no  arrogant  boast 
ing.  Not  that  he  had  lost  one  jot  of  his  native  pugnac 
ity.  In  fact,  he  was  more  than  ever  resolved  to  fight 
the  multitude  of  his  enemies,  every  day  and  at  all  times, 
as,  in  fact,  he  did  to  the  end.  An  unwonted  playful 
ness  of  humour  was  observed  in  him  as  the  days  of 
stress  went  by.  "Well,  what  are  the  signs  of  the 
Zodiac  to-day ! ' '  was  his  greeting  to  his  secretary  when 
that  official  came  to  make  his  evening  report.  We  have 
said  that  he  was  apparently  indifferent  to  the  result. 
We  might  have  said  that  in  point  of  fact  he  was  indif 
ferent.  At  times,  he  seemed  buoyed  up  by  a  belief  in 
the  impossibility  that  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
of  which  he  had  been  so  long  a  member,  could  convict 
him  of  a  crime;  and,  when  he  did  break  his  habitual 
reticence  on  the  subject,  it  was  to  express  the  conviction 
that  among  the  Republican  senators*  there  would  be 
found  in  the  end  enough  high-minded  men  to  eman 
cipate  themselves  from  party  ties  so  far  as  to  declare 
that  the  President  had  committed  no  offence  deserving 
impeachment.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  were 
moments  when  he  must  have  looked  an  adverse  judg 
ment  in  the  face.  His  counsel,  his  most  confidential 
advisers,  his  most  intimate  friends,  were  troubled  with 


THE    ACQUITTAL  557 

grave  misgivings  and  at  times  gave  up  hope.  There 
were  moments  when  he,  too,  seemed  sunk  in  deep 
meditation,  when  he  would  sit  stern  and  silent  in  his 
chair  or  pace  up  and  down  the  rooms  and  halls  of  the 
White  House  in  the  still  hours  of  the  night.  Yet,  the 
resultant  impression  left  on  the  minds  of  those  nearest 
and  dearest  to  him  was,  that  he  was  not  only  careless 
about  the  result  but  that  to  him  conviction  would  be 
welcome.  That  he  contemplated  forcible  resistance 
is  not  likely.  He  believed,  as  was  stated  in  open  court 
by  his  intimate  friend  as  well  as  counsel,  that  the 
Senate,  with  twenty  of  its  members  shut  out,  had  no- 
constitutional  right  to  try  him ;  but  he  did  not  plead  to 
its  jurisdiction,  and,  therefore,  we  may  believe  that  he 
concluded  to  waive  the  point  once  for  all.  It  is  possible 
he  may  have  counted  up  his  resources,  calculated  the 
cost  and  meant,  in  the  last  extremity,  calling  upon 
General  Hancock  for  assistance,  to  put  his  fate  to  the 
touch  and  win  or  lose  it  all ;  and,  in  such  a  contingency, 
we  can  understand  why  an  adverse  judgment  might  in 
a  certain  sense  have  been  welcome.  But,  considering 
on  the  one  hand  the  slenderness  of  his  available  forces 
and  on  the  other  the  plenitude  of  the  power  of  his  ad 
versaries,  we  may  put  aside  any  such  supposition  as 
out  of  the  question.  If,  however,  conviction  had  been 
secured  by  so  gross  an  outrage  as  the  introduction  at 
the  last  moment  of  senators  who  had  taken  no  part  in 
the  trial,  we  may  rest  assured  that,  rather  than  sub 
mit,  he  would  have  been  hewn  to  pieces  on  the  thres 
hold  of  the  White  House.  But,  had  conviction  come 
under  the  regular  constitutional  forms,  however  illegal 


558    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

and  unjust  in  substance  it  may  have  appeared  to  him 
to  be,  there  is  little  doubt  but  that  he  had  schooled  him 
self  to  yield  and,  at  once,  appeal  to  the  people.  It  may 
be  objected  to  this  view  that  the  Senate  would  have  pre 
cluded  the  possibility  of  a  renewal  of  the  contest  by 
superadding  to  the  removal  the  further  penalty  of  dis 
qualification  from  office ;  a  penalty  we  have  already  seen 
Sumner  laying  his  plans  to  impose  by  a  majority  vote. 
But,  even  if  the  senator  from  Massachusetts  had  suc 
ceeded  in  carrying  out  his  vengeful  purpose  and  thus 
shut  out  Johnson  from  contesting  the  Presidency,  still, 
the  additional  punishment  the  Senate  might  constitu 
tionally  inflict  extending  no  further  than  disqualifica 
tion  to  hold  office  "under  the  United  States,"  would 
not  have  debarred  the  unconquerable  defendant  from 
seeking  public  favour  in  his  own  state  and  coming  back 
to  the  Senate. 

Waiving  these  hypothetical  considerations,  what  we 
have  to  record  as  matter  of  fact  is  that,  after  the  ac 
quittal  on  the  eleventh  article,  which  the  public  mind 
naturally  assumed  to  be  the  final  disposition  of  the 
whole  proceeding,  but  little  time  elapsed  before  it  began 
to  look  that,  if  the  martyrdom  of  removal  from  office 
was  what  the  President  was  itching  for,  he  might  still 
have  his  wish.  For,  what  could  be  the  meaning  of  this 
sudden  breaking  off  in  the  process  of  giving  judgment, 
leaving  ten  articles  still  undetermined,  and  adjourning 
the  court  for  ten  days  and  over  the  date  of  the  meeting 
of  the  Republican  national  convention!  The  testimony 
was  all  in— in  nearly  a  month  ago ;  the  arguments  were 
closed— closed  ten  days  before;  the  secret  deliberation 


THE    ACQUITTAL  559 

of  the  court  was  over — over  five  days  before.  Why,  then, 
did  the  majority  not  go  on  and  end  the  proceeding— a 
proceeding  blocking  all  legislation,  keeping  every  one 
concerned  in  it  in  a  fever  of  unrest  and  vexing  the  heart 
of  the  nation?  Why  did  they  prolong  the  agony  ten 
days  more  ?  There  can  be  but  one  answer  to  these 
questions.  '  In  the  depth  of  their  disappointment  they 
still  clung  to  the  hope  that  they  might  yet  impale  their 
enemy  on  some  one  of  the  other  articles.  They  lacked 
but  a  single  vote.  Give  them  but  time,  and,  with  the 
superabundance  of  their  resources,  that  vote  surely 
might  be  captured.  How  they  were  to  capture  it,  was 
the  next  topic  on  which  conjecture  became  rife.  Would 
they  move  to  re-open  the  case  for  additional  testimony! 
Would  they  prefer  additional  charges,  as  the  House  had 
expressly  reserved  the  right  to  do?  Would  they  throw 
aside  all  sense  of  fairness  and  decency  and  reinforce  the 
court  with  the  hybrid  representatives  of  the  Africanized 
South,  now  wandering  about  the. streets  of  the  capital, 
ready  to  jump  at  any  chance,  no  matter  how  disrep 
utable,  to  demonstrate  the  loyalty  with  which  they  were 
overflowing?  Would  they  make  a  combined  attack  on 
one  of  the  back-sliding  senators  and  compel  him  to  come 
in  ?  Such  queries  as  these  gained  increasing  reasonable 
ness  and  pertinency  from  what  went  on  in  the  two 
Houses  during  the  interval. 

After  the  acquittal  on  the  eleventh  article,  as  soon  as 
the  Chief  Justice  left  the  chair  and  the  representatives 
the  chamber,  the  President  pro  tern,  called  the  Senate 
to  order  and  the  senators  plunged  into  a  controversy 
over  the  resolution  sent  from  the  House  to  take  a  recess 


560    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

until  the  twenty-fifth  instant,  in  order  to  enable  mem 
bers  of  Congress  who  so  desired  to  attend  the  Chicago 
convention.  Vigorous  opposition  was  made  on  the 
ground,  as  stated  by  Wilson,  that  the  bills  to  restore 
"Arkansas  and  five  other  Southern  States,"  already 
passed  by  the  House,  should  be  passed  by  the  Senate 
"within  the  next  three  or  four  days."  Simmer,  who,  as 
he  said,  could  not  recall  a  single  instance  when  he  had 
voted  for  "adjournment  or  recess,"  now  favoured  the 
resolution  in  the  following  fashion: 

"I  have  always  felt  from  the  first  moment  he  (the  Presi 
dent)  was  arraigned  at  our  bar  that  it  was  unbecoming 
the  Senate  to  transact  business  with  him.  I  have  felt  as 
if  it  was  the  same  as  if  the  judge  on  the  bench  should  con 
tinue  to  transact  business  with  the  criminal  in  the  dock, 
or,  if  the  Senate  prefers  that  term,  with  the  culprit  in  the 
dock.  .  .  .  Profoundly  believing  the  President  of  the  United 
States  guilty  of  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors— and  I  can 
have  no  hesitation  in  declaring  it,  for  I  have  voted  to-day 
on  one  important  article— having  that  profound  conviction, 
and  knowing  that  there  are  other  articles  that  still  await 
the  judgment  of  the  Senate,  how  can  I  as  a  senator,  con 
sent  to  continue  in  communication  with  him  on  important 
public  business? 

"It  may  be  that  when  these  proceedings  are  brought  to 
an  end,  that  he  may  come  forth  with  a  nominal  acquittal 
of  one  vote.  Condemned  by  a  majority  of  the  Senate,  as 
he  has  already  been  condemned  in  advance  by  two-thirds 
and  more  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and,  as  is  un 
questionable,  condemned  by  the  great  body  of  the  American 
people,  it  may  be,  I  say,  that  he  may  go  forth  from  this 
Chamber  with  a  nominal  acquittal;  but  he  must  go  forth 


THE    ACQUITTAL  5G1 

as  a  blasted  public   functionary.       That  is  his   inevitable 
destiny. ' ' 

Nye,  on  the  other  hand,  was  in  favour  of  putting  the 
Arkansas  bill  "through  all  the  forms"  "before  the  sun 
goes  down."  "Let  the  President  have  another  sweet 
morsel  to  roll  under  his  tongue.  Let  him  veto  it  and  we 
will  meet  it.  ...  The  President,  I  think,  will  waive  the 
peculiar  circumstances  which  he  is  in  and  admit  her.  I 
have  no  doubt  the  message  is  written  already."  Yates 
came  out  still  more  plainly: 

"I  wish  to  send  him  (the  President)  such  a  bill  as  that. 
I  wish  to  send  it  to  him  in  the  interim  between  now  and 
the  final  vote  on  impeachment.,  ...  so  that  we  might  have 
for  our  Republican  colleagues,  our  Republican  friends,  a 
new  veto  upon  human  rights  and  upon  the  best  interests  of 
our  country.  ...  I  believe  in  some  respects  it  would  be 
as  well  for  Congress  to  adjourn  and  for  members  to  go 
home  and  breathe  the  breath  of  popular  opinion  among 
their  constituents,  and  understand  how  a  great  people  feel 
outraged  and  indignant  at  the  verdict  which  has  been  pro 
nounced  here  to-day  on  this  most  important  trial." 

He  could  not  favour  an  adjournment  because  of  the 
important  business  before  the  Senate,  but  he  trusted 
that  * i  in  the  meantime  we  shall  be  able  to  hear  from  the 
country  and  feel  the  effect  of  popular  opinion. "  "  I  do 
not  mean  upon  the  votes  of  the  members ;  but  I  mean 
that,  if  that  opinion  can  in  any  way  influence  our  decis 
ion,  it  will  be  for  the  best  interests  of  the  country. ' '  The 
Senate,  at  first,  rejected  the  resolution  and  then  recon 
sidered  and  adopted  it;  too  late,  however,  because  the 
House  had  also  reconsidered  and  voted  it  down. 

36 


562   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

On  a  motion  to  take  up  the  Arkansas  bill,  the  question 
was  raised  whether  the  senators  from  the  new  state,  pro 
vided  they  were  admitted  on  the  floor,  can  become  mem 
bers  of  the  court  of  impeachment.  ' '  Of  course  they  can 
be,"  said  Sumner.  Fessenden  remarked: 

"I  should  not  envy  the  condition  of  that  member  of  the 
Senate  who  should  propose  to  administer,  the  oath  as  a 
member  of  the  court  of  impeachment  to  either  of  those 
gentlemen  if  they  should  come  here  as  senators  from  Ar 
kansas.  Still  less  should  I  envy  the  condition  of  any  one 
who  proposed  to  take  the  oath  and  to  act  as  a  member  of 
the  court  under  such  circumstances. ' ' 

But  Dixon  insisted : 

"There  are  Senators  in  this  body,  able  and  distinguished 
men  and  lawyers,  who  think  that  if  the  Arkansas  gentle 
men  were  admitted  as  Senators  of  the  United  States,  there 
is  no  power  here  to  refuse  them  the  oath ;  and,  moreover, 
there  are  some  senators  who  believe  they  would  be  com 
pelled  to  act." 

He  cited  the  New  York  Tribune  and  the  Washing 
ton  Chronicle  as  having  "suggested  the  idea  that  these 
senators  should  be  admitted,  and  that  they  should  be 
sworn  as  members  of  the  court  of  impeachment  and  act 
upon  the  case."  In  the  case  of  Warren  Hastings  (as 
manager  Butler  pointed  out  in  his  opening  speech),  of 
the  more  than  one  hundred  and  seventy  peers  who  com 
menced  the  trial  but  twenty-nine  sat  and  pronounced  the 
verdict  at  the  close ;  and,  during  the  trial,  there  had  been 
by  death,  succession  and  creation,  more  than  one  hun 
dred  and  eighty  changes  in  the  House.  Doubtless,  the 


THE    ACQUITTAL  563 

swearing  in  of  additional  members  after  the  court  was 
in  process  of  giving  judgment,  would  be  going  a  step 
farther  than  any  precedent  even  of  the  most  lawless 
periods  of  English  history;  but,  notwithstanding  this, 
there  were  more  than  a  few  senators  and  many  represen 
tatives  who  argued  that  the  impropriety  of  the  act  could 
not  alter  the  right  of  the  senator  to  make  one  of  a  court 
into  which  the  Senate  from  time  to  time  resolved  itself. 
It  was  said  that  such  an  outrage  was  impossible,  because 
the  ten  days  allowed  the  President  to  veto  a  bill  would 
preclude  the  admission  of  the  senators  until  after  the 
day  fixed  for  the  completion  of  the  judgment;  but  a 
second  adjournment  would  be  as  easy  and  not  much 
more  indecorous  than  the  first.  The  Senate,  however, 
disposed  of  the  question  by  refusing  to  take  up  the 
Arkansas  bill.* 

The  proceedings  of  the  House  were  much  more  un 
equivocal.  When  the  representatives,  leaving  the  Sen 
ate,  flocked  across  the  capitol  into  their  own  chamber, 
the  managers,  snatching  up  their  papers,  departed  to 
hold  a  secret  session.  It  has  been  already  noted  that, 
during  the  week  before  the  vote,  they  had  been  hear 
ing  witnesses  detail  the  movements  and  sayings  of  sena 
tors  and  describe  the  guests  and  their  doings  at  the 
dinners  of  the  Chief  Justice;  and  they  imagined  they 
had  struck  the  track  of  a  conspiracy  to  make  Chase 
President.  After  a  brief  conference  on  this  occasion, 
they  filed  into  the  House  and,  by  the  mouth  of  their 
chairman,  presented  a  preamble  reciting  that l  i  informa 
tion  has  come  to  the  managers  which  seems  to  them  to 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  pp.  2492-6,  2514-6. 


564    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

furnish  probable  cause  to  believe  that  improper  and  cor 
rupt  means  have  been  used  to  influence  the  determina 
tion  of  the  Senate  upon  the  articles  of  impeachment," 
and  a  resolution  directing  the  managers  ' '  for  the  further 
and  more  efficient  prosecution  of  the  impeachment  of 
the  President"  to  summon  witnesses,  send  for  persons 
and  papers,  employ  a  stenographer  and  appoint  sub 
committees  to  take  testimony.  Bingham  explained  that, 
at  the  formal  close  of  the  testimony,  he  had  notified  the 
Senate  and  the  counsel  for  the  President  "that  the 
House  of  Representatives  did  not  surrender  its  right 
at  any  time  before  judgment  to  present  additional  testi 
mony";  and,  further,  "the  Constitution  having  vested 
in  the  House  'the  sole  power  of  impeachment'  has 
clothed  this  body  with  power  unto  the  day  of  judgment 
to  investigate  all  corruptions  by  any  man  or  any  men, 
with  a  view  to  prevent  the  decision  of  this  case  accord 
ing  to  the  law  and  the  evidence. ' ' 

"I  am  not  talking  of  impeaching  senators.  But,  sir, 
at  an  early  day  in  the  history  of  the  country  nobody  chal 
lenged  the  right  to  do  it.  The  House  proceeded  to  the 
bar  of  the  Senate  and  demanded  the  sequestration  of  the 
seat  of  a  senator  and  it  was  done.  This  House  is  clothed 
with  full  power  to  do  this  thing  and  no  man  can  challenge 
it  here  or  anywhere  else  successfully." 

An  effort  was  made  by  the  Democrats  to  have  the 
investigation  confided  to  a  committee  on  which  they 
might  have  at  least  one  representative;  but  the  majority 
would  not  yield  an  inch,  and  the  preamble  and  reso 
lution  were  adopted.  Stevens,  on  Monday,  offered  a 
resolution  requesting  the  Senate  to  transmit  to  the 


THE    ACQUITTAL  565 

House  a  certified  copy  of  the  proceedings  of  the  last 
two  days  of  the  trial ;  in  order,  as  he  proceeded  to  ex 
plain,  to  have  an  official  record  of  the  votes  of  different 
senators.  His  remarks,  of  which  the  following  is  a 
specimen,  for  some  reason  were  at  times  almost  unin 
telligible: 

"There  will  undoubtedly  be  some  further  proceedings 
had  in  regard  to  this  impeachment;  what  those  proceed 
ings  will  be  I  do  not  know.  I  suppose  that  we  shall  be  able 
in  some  way  or  other  to  vote  upon  the  articles  which  are 
still  before  the  Senate.  ...  I  do  not  suppose  that  any  one 
believes  that  the  question  which  was  passed  upon  on  Sat 
urday  last  is  to  remain  a  defunct  question.  I  do  not  sup 
pose  that  any  one  believes  that  that  question  is  to  be  carried 
to  the  country  in  its  present  condition.  .  .  . 

"I  make  no  accusation;  I  charge  nobody  with  anything. 
But  to  me  it  seems  amazing  that  a  body  of  that  kind,  having 
before  it  a  body  of  men  of  the  highest  character,  will  give 
to  themselves  and  to  others  the  character  which  they  have 
given,  and  which  they  feel  disposed  to  stamp  upon  the 
country.  .  .  .  We  are  therefore  asking  that  as  these  mat 
ters  have  been  sent  before  the  Senate  for  the  purpose  of  be 
ing  investigated,  every  opportunity  shall  be  allowed  for  the 
purpose  of  ascertaining  who  have  been  willing  to  listen  and 
who  have  refused  to  listen  to  the  instructions  of  the  accused. 
That  there  has  been  great,  manifold,  deep  damnation,  and 
that  there  is  somewhere  to  be  found  the  greatest  of  all 
mysteries,  the  mystery  of  this  great  prevalence  of  evil,  no 
one  can  doubt.  Let  us  therefore  have  the  whole  matter  in 
such  a  shape  that  there  may  be  every  opportunity  to  inves 
tigate,  so  that  all  men  may  see  who  it  is  that  is  wrong,  and 
who  it  is  that  is  right."* 
*  Glolc,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  pp.  2504-5,  2530. 


566    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

The  resolution  was  adopted  without  a  division  and 
sent  immediately  to  the  Senate,  where  it  gave  rise  to  a 
heated  discussion  as  an  encroachment  upon  the  preroga 
tives  of  that  body  and  an  insult  to  some  of  its  members. 
Sumner,  however,  did  not  see  it  in  that  light.  He  said: 

"We  know  from  the  evidence  before  us  something  of  the 
character  of  the  President  of  the  United  States;  we  know 
how  utterly  unprincipled  and  wicked  he  is ;  it  is  in  evidence. 
We  also  know  what  some  of  his  agents  and  representatives 
.  .  .  have  openly  said." 

And  the  senator  read  a  communication  from  the 
New  York  World  to  the  effect  that  there  were  four 
teen  radical  senators  whose  terms  of  office  expire  in 
1869  (Sumner  himself  being  one  of  them),  eight  of 
whom  might  certainly  be  bought  for  a  million  apiece; 
read  it  as  though  it  was  an  editorial  and  the  suggestion 
a  serious  one,  when  it  was  apparent,  as  the  newspaper 
hastened  to  explain,  that  it  was  an  ironical  exempli 
fication  of  Sumner 's  own  doctrine  that  the  trial  of 
impeachments  was  not  so  much  a  judicial  as  a  political 
function,  and  the  vote  of  a  senator  on  impeachments 
should  be  governed  by  political  considerations  and  his 
own  interest  as  a  member  of  his  party.  Sumner 's  mo 
tion  to  comply  with  the  request  of  the  House  failed 
for  lack  of  a  quorum,  and  the  managers  procured  the 
record  in  some  indirect  way.* 

This  band  of  seven  disappointed  partisans  had  in 
augurated  a  reign  of  terror  in  certain  quarters  of  the 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  2520. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  567 

capital.  They  hardly  waited  for  the  authority  of  the 
House  before  they  descended  upon  the  telegraph  offices 
of  Washington  and  Baltimore,  seizing  every  despatch 
which  had  been  sent  to  or  from  the  city  for  four  or  five 
days  preceding  the  fatal  Saturday.  They  invaded  the 
banks  and  forced  the  officers  to  disclose  the  accounts 
of  senators  and  other  suspected  depositors.  They 
could  not  wait  for  the  seal  of  the  Speaker  or  for  the 
lapse  of  Sunday,  but  on  that  day  issued  a  subpoena 
signed  by  their  chairman,  and  caused  it  to  be  served  on 
one  Charles  Woolley— a  sporting  gentleman  who  had 
been  betting  heavily  on  the  President's  side,  talking 
loudly  in  favour  of  acquittal  and  telegraphing  in  cipher 
in  various  directions,  mysteriously,  about  large  sums 
of  money.  Woolley  fooled  them  to  the  top  of  their 
bent;  worrying  Butler  by  suddenly  disappearing  in 
the  direction  of  New  York  with  the  apparent  intention 
of  disregarding  the  process  served  on  Sunday;  as 
suddenly  reappearing,  just  in  the  nick  of  time  to  escape 
arrest ;  and,  when  at  last  caught,  answering  all  questions 
fully  and  freely  up  to  a  certain  point  when,  all  at  once, 
he  closed  up  his  shell  and  became  ominously  silent. 
The  recusant  witness  was  finally  ordered  into  confine 
ment  ;  and,  there  being  no  darker  dungeon  within  reach 
than  the  cell  in  the  crypt  of  the  capitol  where  Miss 
Eeam  was  at  work  on  her  statue  of  Lincoln,  the  House 
turned  her  out  of  it  to  make  place  for  the  prisoner,  not 
withstanding  her  personal  protest  that  to  move  the 
model  would  be  its  ruin.* 

*  For  Woolley,   see   Globe,  2d   Sess.   40th   Cong.,   pp.    2536-7,   2541, 
2575-9.      For  Miss  Pxeam,  id.,  pp.  2672,  2751. 


568    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Henderson  became  a  special  mark  for  the  managers. 
They  sent  him  an  official  letter  requesting  his  pres 
ence  before  them  to  give  his  testimony;  to  which  he 
replied  that  their  inquisition  was  a  direct  insult  to 
the  Senate  and  of  most  dangerous  tendency  for  the 
future;  that  "if  a  member  of  the  court  can  now,  be 
fore  the  rendition  of  the  judgment,  be  withdrawn  from 
consultation,  and  subjected  to  the  inquisition  of  the 
prosecutors,  that  inquisition  may  reach  all  proceedings, 
and  thus  subvert  the  dignity  and  independence  of  the 
Senate. "  A  committee  having  been  appointed,  in  the 
meanwhile,  at  the  request  of  the  Democrats  backed  by 
the  Missouri  representatives  to  investigate  the  attempt 
of  the  latter  to  intimidate  their  senator,  Henderson 
appeared  before  it  (on  the  twentieth)  and  gave  his 
version  of  the  transaction,  answering,  as  he  said,  in 
addition,  "all  questions  propounded  in  reference  to  the 
conduct  of  Chief  Justice  Chase,  the  reported  organiza 
tion  of  a  new  party,  the  rumors  of  new  Cabinet  appoint 
ments,  reported  presidential  pledges  of  protection  to 
what  is  foolishly  termed  Conservative  Senators,  din 
ner-table  talk  with  friends  and  even  my  own  private 
opinions."  And,  then,  on  Thursday  (the  twenty-first) 
he  laid  the  managers'  letter,  his  reply  and  the  fore 
going  information  before  the  Senate  for  its  direction, 
subjoining  that,  were  he  to  appear  before  the  managers, 
he  could  but  repeat  what  he  had  already  testified  to, 
whereas,  on  the  other  hand,  he  objected  to  submit  to  an 
inquisition  so  insulting  to  the  Senate  and  so  derogatory 
to  the  personal  honour  of  senators  and  their  independ 
ence  as  judges.  Simmer,  however,  "knowing,"  as  he 


THE    ACQUITTAL  569 

said,  "from  public  report  that  it  is  among  the  pos 
sibilities  that  a  further  article  of  impeachment  may  be 
exhibited  against  the  President,"  thought  it  "a  work 
of  superfluity  at  least, ' '  which  he  could  not  comprehend, 
that  any  senator  should  seek  to  throw  in  its  way  the 
dignity  of  the  Senate.  "Sir,"  exhorted  this  model 
judge,  "let  justice  have  a  free  course  and  take  its  way. 
The  way  of  justice  cannot  be  stopped.  Technicalities 
are  out  of  place ;  they  do  not  belong  to  a  case  like  this. ' ' 
The  Senate  came  to  no  conclusion  upon  this  question; 
the  final  determination  of  the  Impeachment  depriving 
it  of  vitality. 

The  managers  still  kept  on  swearing  witnesses,  over 
hauling  senators,  following  up  false  scents  of  bribery 
and  corruption,  and  pursuing  flying  rumours  of  this  or 
that  judge  being  tampered  with.  As  was  inevitable  in 
such  a  mad  game,  they  did  not  fail  to  run  across  the 
professional  false  witness.  Their  "Conover"  proved 
to  be  one  Legate  or  Legget,  a  special  Post-Office  agent 
for  Kansas  and  New  Mexico  appointed  by  the  Post 
master-General  the  year  before  at  the  earnest  solicita 
tion  of  senator  Pomeroy.  This  creature  testified  to 
some  vague  stuff  concerning  Boss  and  his  friends, 
conclusive  of  nothing  and  contradicted  point-blank 
wherever  it  could  be  brought  to  book;  but,  because  of 
over-anxiety  that  he  might  not  swear  to  enough,  he 
went  too  far  and,  to  the  managers'  mortification,  im 
plicated  Pomeroy,  and  that  too  in  the  most  explicit 
fashion.  According  to  his  testimony,  Pomeroy,  through 
his  brother-in-law,  had  been  hawking  about  his  own 

*  Globe,  2cl  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  pp.  2548-9. 


570    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

vote  and  the  votes  of  three  or  four  of  his  colleagues,  to 
be  cast  for  acquittal  at  the  aggregate  price  of  forty 
thousand  dollars.  And  a  copy  of  a  letter,  dated  April 
16,  1867,  purporting  to  have  been  written  by  Pomeroy 
to  Legate  just  before  the  latter ?s  appointment,  and 
shown  by  Legate  to  the  Postmaster-General— the  orig 
inal  having  been  taken  back  but  the  copy  retained  and 
given  to  the  President— was  produced  by  the  Post 
master-General  himself;  in  which  Pomeroy  promises 
that,  if  the  Postmaster-General  or  the  President  "get 
in  trouble,  even  if  it  be  impeachment,  they  can  count 
on  me  to  aid  in  getting  them  out,  by  word  and  vote." 
Pomeroy  testified  he  never  wrote  such  a  letter ;  but 
Thurlow  Weed,  also  a  witness  before  the  managers, 
stated  in  the  public  prints  that  "Senator  Pomeroy 
either  intended  to  dispose  of  three  votes  (his  own, 
Nye's  and  Tipton's)  or  he  was  willing  that  his  friends 
should  use  his  name  to  make  money;  or,  as  some  be 
lieve,  there  was  a  conspiracy  between  Butler  and 
Pomeroy  to  implicate  the  President,  thus  obtaining  new 
material  for  impeachment";  and  the  subsequent  career 
of  "Subsidy  Pom"  shows  that  he  was  none  too  pure 
to  have  been  guilty  of  any  one  of  these  three  iniquities.* 
This  managerial  investigation  was  kept  on  foot  even 
after  the  final  termination  of  the  trial,  but  merely  to 
wreak  the  spite  of  some  of  the  Board  on  the  men  who 
had  disappointed  them,  by  collecting  together  every 
little  circumstance,  incident  or  saying  connected  with 

*  See  Butler's  report  of  managers,  pp.  11,  12,  ordered  printed  July 
3,  Globe,  p.  3731.  Henderson's  speech  on,  id.,  p.  4463  et  scq.  Butler  in 
reply.  App.  p.  471. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  571 

the  giving  of  their  votes,  which  could  be  tortured  into 
evidence  of  a  change  of  mind  at  the  last  moment  from 
weak  or  corrupt  motives.  It  gradually  degenerated 
into  a  farce.  One  by  one  the  managers  became 
ashamed  of  it  and  fell  away,  so  that  when  Butler,  the 
sole  survivor,  made  a  report  in  July,  he  could  get  no 
one  of  his  colleagues  to  sign  it  and  was  obliged  to  take 
the  responsibility  himself.  No  action  was  taken  on  it 
—the  report  itself  in  fact  neither  proposing  nor  calling 
for  any.  An  investigating  committee  appointed  by 
the  Senate  held  two  meetings  during  the  session,  made 
no  report,  was  continued  at  the  next  session,  but  did 
nothing;  and  at  the  close  of  the  fortieth  Congress, 
which  ended  with  the  administration  of  President  John 
son  (March  3,  1869),  the  chairman  of  the  committee 
announced  that  there  would  be  no  formal  report  made ; 
that  "neither  at  the  former  session  nor  at  the  present 
one  has  any  information  been  communicated  to  that  com 
mittee  upon  the  subject  in  regarol  to  which  they  were 
appointed.  From  no  quarter  have  we  received  any  in 
formation  which  would  even  justify  us  in  entering  upon 
any  regular  investigation,  and  .  .  .  nothing  has  ap 
peared  to  justify  any  imputation  upon  any  member  of 
the  Senate.  "* 

In  their  desperate  effort  to  capture  the  one  vote  they 
needed,  the  managers  were  aided  by  the  national  con 
vention  of  their  party;  indeed,  Bingham  and  Logan 
were  on  the  spot.  Although  the  platform  adopted  did 
not  read  the  recusant  senators  out  of  the  party,  as  was 
first  proposed,  it  denounced  Andrew  Johnson  as  a  crimi- 

*  C  lobe,  3d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  18G5. 


572    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

nal  of  the  deepest  dye,  declared  him  to  have  been  "justly 
impeached  for  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors  and 
properly  pronounced  guilty  thereof  by  the  votes  of 
thirty-five  senators. ' '  At  meetings  of  several  state  dele 
gations,  speeches  were  made  violently  assailing  the 
motives  of  the  acquitting  senators ;  the  resolutions  of  the 
convention  of  soldiers  and  sailors,  held  at  the  same  time 
and  i)lace,  arraigned  "any  senator  who  has  voted  for 
acquittal  as  falling  short  of  the  proper  discharge  of  his 
duty  in  this  hour  of  the  Nation's  trial,  and  as  unworthy 
of  the  confidence  of  a  brave  and  loyal  people";  and 
Logan  publicly  vouched  for  Grant  as  having  "stood  at 
the  back  of  the  managers  in  Congress  during  the  whole 
course  of  the  trial. ' ' 

Whatever  hope  the  authors  of  this  system  of  intimida 
tion  may  have  had  at  the  start  of  coercing  others  of  the 
recusant  senators,  circumstances  point  unmistakably  to 
the  particular  one  they  must  have  centered  upon  before 
the  close  of  the  week.  Fessenden,  Trumbull  and  Grimes 
were  of  course  out  of  the  question.  They  had  written 
their  opinions  upon  every  article,  read  them  to  the  Sen 
ate,  and  they  were  already  on  file.  Of  the  remaining 
four,  Van  Winkle  had  never  been  doubtful  on  any 
article  but  the  eleventh,  on  which  he  and  his  colleague, 
as  the  latter  stated  in  the  press,  were  driven  in  opposite 
directions  by  the  construction  given  it  by  the  Chief  Jus 
tice.*  Fowler,  on  the  day  he  voted  not  guilty  on  the 
eleventh  article,  publicly  responded  to  a  telegram  in 
voking  blessings  on  his  head :  "I  acted  for  my  country 

*  Ross'  speech  at  p.  2599  of  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  573 

and  posterity  in  obedience  to  the  voice  of  God."*  Hen 
derson  had  delivered  his  opinion  in  the  Senate  against 
the  first  eight  articles  before  his  vote  on  the  eleventh, 
and  the  ninth  and  tenth  articles  were  hopeless  in  any 
event.  He  stated  in  open  Senate,  besides,  that  he  ex 
pected  to  vote  on  all  the  articles  as  he  had  voted  on  the 
eleventh. f  But  Ross  was  not  committed  against  any  of 
the  remaining  articles.  In  fact,  according  to  his  own 
admission,  he  had  expressed  himself  as  favourable  to  the 
first  article  and  as  undecided  as  to  the  second  and  third. 
He  was  the  one  single  senator  who  had  so  conducted 
himself  as  to  have  left  open  a  loop-hole  for  retreat  or 
recantation.  As  none  could  say  before  the  vote  was 
taken  how  he  would  vote  on  the  eleventh  article,  so,  now, 
none  could  say  how  he  would  vote  on  the  remainder. 
He  was,  consequently,  the  main  target  at  which  the 
managers  aimed.  It  is  not  probable  that  any  of  them 
held  a  personal  conference  with  him,  although  it  was 
rumoured  that  Butler  and  he  had  come  together.  His 
colleague,  as  we  have  seen,  threatened  him  with  an  in 
vestigation  on  the  charge  of  bribery.  His  intimate 
friends  and  his  patrons  at  the  capital  were  examined 
and  cross-examined.  His  colleague,  his  constituents, 
his  fellow-senators,  swore  to  his  previous  statements 
favourable  to  conviction.  His  Indian  office  connection ; 
his  visits  to  the  studio  of  Vinnie  Ream;  his  lodging 
at  her  mother's;  his  association  with  advocates  of  the 
President;— were  exploited:  the  menace  that,  unless  he 
redeemed  himself  from,  his  corrupt  apostasy,  a  chain 

*  Butler's  Report,  p.  28. 

t  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  2494. 


574    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

of  circumstantial  evidence  would  be  fastened  about  him 
and  he  himself  pilloried  before  the  nation,  flashing  like 
a  drawn  sword  in  the  background.  Those  ten  days  must 
have  been  days  of  torture  to  him,  at  the  mercy  of  the 
venal  tongue  of  any  professional  witness  who  might  find 
favour  with  the  managers.  He  bore  the  ordeal  with  the 
fortitude  of  a  stoic  and  the  inscrutability  of  a  sphinx.* 
When  the  High  Court  re-assembled,  there  was  still 
room,  therefore,  for  speculation.  Ten  articles  were  yet 
to  be  voted  on;  thirty-five  votes  of  'Guilty'  were  cer 
tain  on  at  least  one  of  them ;  but  one  vote  was  needed  to 
convict ;  and  out  of  the  nineteen  who  voted  *  Not  Guilty ' 
on  the  eleventh,  one  senator's  mind  was  not  surely 
known.  The  Senate  Chamber  was  crowded  as  before. 
The  House  of  Representatives,  headed  by  Washburne, 
who,  with  many  of  his  fellow  members,  was  fresh  from 
making  the  next  President,  appeared,  once  more,  to  par 
ticipate  in  an  attempt  to  unmake  the  present  President. 
The  Chief  Justice,  the  object  of  so  much  partisan  objur 
gation,  sat  quietly  in  his  chair.  The  holding  of  a  caucus 
by  the  majority  senators  that  morning  to  determine  the 
order  of  voting  on  the  remaining  articles  had  given  rise 
to  the  report  that  there  was  to  be  another  postponement. 
But  this  expectation  was  speedily  dispelled  by  Williams ' 
offer  of  a  resolution  to  rescind  the  previous  order  of 
reading  and  voting  on  the  articles  so  far  as  it  remained 
unexecuted.  Every  senator  was  in  his  place;  Grimes, 
who  had  obtained  an  indefinite  leave  of  absence  on  ac 
count  of  illness  and  it  was  hoped  might  not  be  able  to 
be  present,  sitting  implacably  in  his  seat.  The  Chief 

*  Butler's  report.      Ross's  speech  in  vindication,  Globe,  2d  Sess.  40th 
Cong.,  p.  4513. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  575 

Justice  ruled  the  motion  to  rescind  out  of  order,  but  he 
submitted  the  question  to  the  Senate  and  the  Senate 
overruled  him  by  29  to  25;— Boss,  alone  of  the  seven 
recusant  senators,  voting  with  the  majority.     Conkling 
then  offered  as  a  substitute  an  order  that  the  voting  do 
now  proceed  under  the  rules  and  the  Senate  rejected  the 
substitute;  Ross,  alone  of  the  seven,  again  voting  with 
the  majority.     There  was  another  vote  on  a  point  of 
order  raised  by  Trumbull  against  the  proposed  change 
of  rule ;  and,  again,  Ross  was  in  the  same  company.    A 
motion  was  made  by  Morrill  of  Maine  to  adjourn  the 
court  to  the  twenty-third  day  of  June ;  and  Ross  moved 
as  an  amendment  the  date  of  the  first  of  September,  his 
amendment  obtaining  fifteen  votes  including  those  of 
the  seven  except  Grimes.    The  motion  to  adjourn  to  the 
twenty-third  of  June  was  then  voted  down  by  a  tie  vote 
—  27  to  27;  every  one  of  the  seven  senators  voting  in 
the  negative,  except  Ross  who  voted  in  the  affirmative. 
The  motion  to  rescind  was  then  adopted.    The  object  of 
this  motion  was  to  get  rid  of  the  necessity  of  voting  on 
the  first  article  which  everybody  knew  was  certain  to 
fail;  and  Ross's  going  with  the  majority  to  effect  this 
significant  evasion  was  looked  upon  by  the  impeachers 
as  a  harbinger  of  the  return  of  the  prodigal.    Williams, 
still  carrying  out  the  decree  of  the  caucus,  now  moved 
to  proceed  to  vote  on  the  second  article.     The  second 
article  was  read,  charging  the  ad  interim  appointment 
of  Lorenzo  Thomas.     The  call  of  the  roll  proceeded. 
AVhen  the  name  of  Ross  was  reached  there  was  a  sudden 
accession  of  the  almost  insufferable  strain  of  ten  days 
ago.    Again,  the  fate  of  the  President,  of  the  Republican 


576    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

party,  of  the  nation,  seemed  to  hang  upon  the  lips  of 
this  one  man.  Again,  the  Chief  Justice  asks:  "Mr. 
Senator  Ross,  how  say  you,  is  the  respondent,  Andrew 
Johnson,  President  of  the  United  States,  guilty  or  not 
guilty  of  a  high  misdemeanor  as  charged  in  this  article 
of  impeachment  ? ' '  And,  again,  the  Senator  calmly  lets 
fall  the  words  'Xot  Guilty.'  The  President  is  acquitted 
on  the  charge  by  the  same  vote  as  before— 35  to  19. 
There  is  to  be  one  more  throw.  Williams  moves  a  vote 
on  the  third  article.  The  third  article  is  read.  The  roll- 
call  passes  with  the  same  result;  Ross  still  answering 
'  Not  Guilty, '  with  the  promptitude  and  relentlessness  of 
an  automaton.  Again  35  to  19.  Twice  has  'BlufT  Ben ' 
Wade— Coif  ax,  his  successful  competitor,  smiling  in  his 
face— laid  his  already  stricken  honour  on  the  altar  of  his 
party,  knowing  the  sacrifice  to  be  vain.  The  prosecutors 
dare  go  no  further  in  the  list  of  articles,  lest  a  worse  fate 
befall  them.  Williams  moves  an  adjournment  without 
day;  every  convicting  senator  votes  for  it  but  two  who 
are  absent ;  the  High  Court,  foregoing  the  completion  of 
its  judgment,  dissolves,  leaving  the  first  article  on  which 
the  whole  proceeding  hung,  the  conspiracy  articles 
elaborated  with  such  care,  the  much-vaunted  Emory 
article  and  Butler's  masterpiece  of  pleading,  to  the  un- 
escapable  judgment  of  posterity. 

It  was  frequently  boasted  by  its  advocates,  at  the 
time,  that  the  movement  was  substantially  a  success 
because  the  President  was  convicted  by  so  large  a 
majority  of  the  Senate  and  escaped  by  only  one  vote. 
Sumner,  as  we  have  seen,  found  solace  in  dwelling 
upon  this  fact.  "The  acquittal  was  only  by  one 


THE    ACQUITTAL  577 

vote";  he  said,  "there  is  a  familiar  saying  that  a 
man  is  saved  by  the  skin  of  his  teeth;  and  so  .  .  . 
the  President  was  saved  by  the  skin  of  his  teeth.  He 
was  saved  by  one  vote.  I  call  it  a  nominal  acquittal. 
There  is  ...  a  moral  judgment  against  him."  But 
this  is  an  altogether  mistaken  view.  It  were  no  great 
achievement,  surely,  to  secure  from  the  Senate,  more 
than  three-fourths  of  whose  members  were  the  political 
adversaries  of  the  President,  a  majority  to  condemn  him 
for  his  course  in  obstructing  their  party  policy.  (^In 
deed,  if  a  majority  had  been  all  that  was  required,  he 
could  have  been  deposed  long  before;  for  a  majority, 
ready  to  convict  on  the  general  ground  of  political 
apostasy,  was  obtainable  at  any  time  after  the  rupture 
between  the  President  and  the  Congress  became  irre 
parable.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  out  of  the  thirty-five  who 
voted  guilty  a  sufficient  number  to  make  a  large  majority 
of  the  Senate  rested  their  judgment  upon  no  other  con 
sideration.  What  the  Constitution  required,  however, 
and  what  the  Impeachment  advocates  started  out  to 
obtain  was  a  two-thirds  majority  on  certain  specific 
charges  of  crime  or  misdemeanour.  And  from  this  point 
of  view,  the  Impeachment  must  be  regarded  as  an 
ignominious  failure.)  On  the  chief  accusation,  without 
the  existence  of  the  subject-matter  of  which  there  would 
have  been  no  impeachment,  the  Senate  never  came  to  a 
vote  at  all.  The  House  passed  an  act  to  keep  Stanton 
in  the  Cabinet  in  spite  of  the  President,  and  unwittingly 
so  worded  it  as  to  leave  Stanton  standing  defenceless 
outside  of  its  provisions.  The  Senate,  in  a  pliant  hour, 
openly,  in  the  face  of  all  men,  so  construed  it.  The  rep- 
37 


578    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

resentatives,  shutting  their  eyes  to  their  own  blunder, 
blindly  drove  on  the  prosecution.  But  certain  senators 
happened  to  be  too  deeply  committed.  They  could  not 
bring  themselves  to  perpetrate  the  unparalleled  iniquity 
of  convicting  the  President  for  construing  a  law  as 
they  had  construed  it  themselves;  and,  therefore,  the 
bottom  fell  out  of  the  case.  The  eleventh  article  was 
essentially  meaningless.  It  was  concocted  as  a  refuge 
for  those  senators  who  could  not  see  their  way  clear  on 
the  specific  charge,  but  hated  Andrew  Johnson  with 
sufficient  vigour  to  vote  him  out  of  office  on  general 
grounds.  The  second  and  third  articles,  cut  off  from 
the  first,  were  ciphers  shorn  of  their  governing  integer ; 
and  were  hit  upon  to  enable  senators,  too  deeply  com 
mitted  against  the  Stanton  article  to  vote  for  it,  to  keep 
in  line  with  their  party  by  taking  advantage  of  what 
might  be  made  to  look  like  a  statutory  infraction,  how 
ever  harmless.  The  House  of  Representatives  advanced 
to  the  Impeachment  with  pceans  of  anticipated  triumph 
and  like  an  army  with  banners.  The  Senate  beckoned 
them  on  by  pronouncing  judgment  of  condemnation 
beforehand.  The  trial  ensued  with  all  the  pomp  and 
circumstance  befitting  so  historic  an  occasion ;  and,  at 
the  end  of  the  procedure,  the  High  Court  ran  away  from 
the  completion  of  its  judgment  because  a  majority  of  its 
members  were  afraid  of  the  central  charge.  And  this 
humiliating  fiasco  was  a  most  fortunate  event  for  the 
Republic.  Had  this  first  impeachment  eventuated  in  the 
removal  of  the  Chief  Magistrate,  a  precedent  would 
have  been  established  of  the  most  fatal  character— con 
stituting  a  perpetual  menace  to  the  stability  of  our  ex- 


THE    ACQUITTAL  579 

ecutive,  a  spreading  blight  upon  our  character  and 
credit  as  a  nation,  a  standing  reproach  to  the  republican 
form  of  government,  and  gradually  leading  to  a  national 
habit  of  capricious  political  convulsions  to  put  one  pres 
ident  in  the  place  of  another  such  as  have  disgraced 
some  of  the  republics  of  Central  and  South  America. 
To  quote  the  weighty  words  of  Senator  >Trumbull  at  the 
close  of  his  opinion  in  this  case : 

"Once  set  the  example  of  impeaching  the  President,  for 
what,  when  the  excitement  of  the  hour  shall  have  subsided, 
will  be  regarded  as  insufficient  causes,  as  several  of  those 
now  alleged  against  the  President  were  decided  to  be  by 
the  House  of  Representatives  only  a  few  months  since,  and 
no  future  President  will  be  safe  who  happens  to  differ 
with  a  majority  of  the  House  and  two-thirds  of  the  Senate 
on  any  measure  deemed  by  them  important,  particularly 
if  of  a  political  character.  Blinded  by  partisan  zeal,  with 
such  an  example  before  them,  they  Nwill  not  scruple  to  re 
move  out  of  the  way  any  obstacle  to  the  accomplishment 
of  their  purposes,  and  what  then  becomes  ,pf  the  checks  and 
balances  of  the  Constitution,  so  carefully  devised  and  so 
vital  to  its  perpetuity^  They 'are  all  gone." 

As  it  turned  out,  however,  the  precedent  was  de 
cisively  ihsp Bother  way..  Never  will  the  practice  of 
deposing  ^presidents  by  political  impeachment  become 
domiciliated  in  this  republic.  Centuries  will  pass  by 
before  another  President  of  the  United  States  can  be 
impeached,  unless  the  offence  of  which  he  is  accused 
is  clearly  non-political  and  amounts  unmistakably  to  a 
high  crime  or  misdemeanour. 

;  'f 


580    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Of  the  opinions  written  and  filed  by  senators,  some 
thing  remains  to  be  said.     Of  the  twelve  opposition  sen 
ators,  six  filed  opinions  none  of  which  calls  for  special 
remark.      Of  the  seven  recusant  senators,  all,   except 
Koss,  filed  opinions  discussing  every  article  and  con 
cluding  on  every  one  with  judgment  of  acquittal.      Of 
the  thirty-five  senators  voting  guilty  but  eighteen  filed 
opinions ;  so  that  of  the  judgments  of  seventeen  on  all 
the  other  articles,  except  the  three  voted  on,  we  have 
no  record.     Of  the  eighteen,  two  pronounced  the  Presi 
dent  'Not  Guilty'  on  the  first  article  (Howe  and  Sher 
man)  ;  five  pronounced  him  'Not  Guilty'  on  the  fourth; 
three  'Not  Guilty'  on  the  fifth;  five  'Not  Guilty'  on  the 
sixth ;  two  '  Not  Guilty '  on  the  seventh ;  one  '  Not  Guilty ' 
on  the  eighth;  eight  'Not  Guilty'  on  the  ninth;  and 
five  'Not  Guilty'  on  the  tenth.     Of  the  whole  eighteen, 
but  two  found  the  President  'Guilty'   specifically  on 
every    article.     Cattel,    Harlan,    Morrill,    of    Maine, 
Stewart,  Williams,  Wilson  and  Yates  pronounced  him 
guilty  generally,  but  those  of  them  who  descended  to 
particulars  discussed  only  the  first  article  and  the  three 
actually  voted  on;  Wilson  confining  himself,   wholly, 
to  generalities,  and,  alone  of  the  senators,  expressing 
his  intention  to  vote,  not  only  for  conviction,  but  un 
hesitatingly    for    the   disqualification    of    the    removed 
President  from  thereafter  holding  any  office  under  the 
United  States.      Tipton  and  Howard  were  for  convic 
tion  on  all  but  the  ninth;  even  on  the  ninth  Howard 
found  the  President  censurable.      But  the  proud  dis 
tinction  of  sustaining,  seriatim,  each  and  every  count 


THE    ACQUITTAL  581 

in  the  indictment— the  exploded  Emory  article  and  all 
—was  enjoyed  by  Pomeroy  and  Sumner  alone. 

Sumner,  in  fact,  confessed  that  he  would  vote,  if  he 
could:  "Guilty  on  all  and  infinitely  more."  His  opin 
ion  is  a  characteristic  production.  The  longest  one  of 
all,  filling  thirty-four  pages  of  print,  carefully  elabor 
ated  in  the  closet,  regimented  into  sections,  labelled  with 
ad  captandum  headings,  accompanied  by  a  voluminous 
brief  against  the  right  of  the  Chief  Justice  to  rule  or 
vote ;  it  is  saturated  with  an  animosity  to  the  President 
so  bitter  and  intense  that  its  only  natural  source  would 
seem  to  be  a  rancorous  personal  spite.  This  is  the  way 
the  senator  opens  a  judicial  deliverance: 

"This  is  one  of  the  last  great  battles  with  .slavery. 
Driven  from  these  legislative  chambers,  driven  from  the 
field  of  war,  this  monstrous  power  has  found  a  refuge  in  the 
Executive  Mansion,  where,  in  utter  disregard  of  the  Con 
stitution  and  laws,  it  seeks  to  exercise  its  ancient,  far- 
reaching  sway.  All  this  is  very  plain.  Nobody  can  ques 
tion  it.  Andrew  Johnson  is  the  impersonation  of  the 
tyrannical  slave  power.  In  him  it  lives  again.  He  is  the 
lineal  descendant  of  John  C.  Calhoun  and  Jefferson  Davis; 
and  he  gathers  about  him  the  same  supporters.  Original 
partisans  of  slavery  north  and  south;  habitual  compro 
misers  of  great  principles ;  maligners  of  the  Declaration  of 
Independence ;  politicians  without  heart ;  lawyers  for  whom 
a  technicality  is  everything;  and  a  promiscuous  company 
who  at  every  stage  of  the  battle  have  set  their  faces  against 
equal  rights;  these  are  his  allies.  It  is  the  old  troop  of 
slavery,  with  a  few  recruits,  ready  as  of  old  for  violence- 
cunning  in  device  and  heartless  in  quibble.  With  the 
President  at  their  head,  they  are  now  entrenched  in  the 


582    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Executive  Mansion.  .  .  .  The  enormity  of  his  conduct  is 
aggravated  by  his  barefaced  treachery.  He  once  declared 
himself  to  be  the  Moses  of  the  colored  race.  Behold  him 
now  the  Pharaoh.  With  such  treachery  in  such  a  cause 
there  can  be  no  parley.  Every  sentiment,  every  conviction, 
every  vow  against  slavery  must  now  be  directed  against  him. 
Pharaoh  is  at  the  bar  of  the  Senate  for  judgment." 

In  order  to  gain  swinging  room  for  his  blows  he 
sweeps  away  the  flimsy  barrier  of  the  articles. 

"It  is  very  wrong  to  try  this  impeachment  merely  on  the 
articles.  It  is  unpardonable  to  higgle  over  words  and 
phrases  when  for  more  than  two  years  the  tyrannical  pre 
tensions  of  this  offender  .  .  .  have  been  manifest  in  their 
terrible  heart-rending  consequences. ' ' 

Impeachment  is  a  political,  and  not  a  judicial,  pro 
ceeding,  for  the  reason,  according  to  this  jurist,  that  the 
Constitution,  having  vested  the  judicial  power  in  the 
courts,  provided,  nevertheless,  that  the  Senate  should 
have  the  sole  power  to  try  impeachments.  Further,  poli 
tical  offences  are  impeachable  offences.  "Show  me  an 
act  of  evil  example  or  influence  committed  by  a  President 
and  I  show  you  an  impeachable  offence. ' '  This  tribunal 
is  not  to  be  confined  by  the  "rigid  rules  of  the  common 
law."  It  has  "rules  of  its  own,  unknown  to  ordinary 
courts. "  "The  precision  of  history  is  enough  with 
out  the  precision  of  an  indictment."  There  can  be  no 
artificial  rules  of  evidence  to  shut  out  the  truth.  ' '  The 
ordinary  rule  of  evidence,"  that  the  benefit  of  the 
doubt  must  be  given  to  the  accused,  l ' is  reversed. "  "If 
on  any  point  you  entertain  doubts,  the  benefit  of  those 


THE    ACQUITTAL  583 

doubts  must  be  given  to  your  country;  and  this  is  the 
supreme  law."  The  President  "must  show  that  his 
longer  continuance  in  office  is  not  inconsistent  with  the 
public  safety."  As  Blackstone  said  with  reference  to 
liberty,  "we  should  l catch  at  everything'  to  save  the 
Republic."  What  is  more,  we  can  take  cognizance 
without  special  proof  on  the  trial  of  "whatever  ought 
to  be  generally  known  within  the  limits  of  the  jurisdic 
tion,  including  the  history  of  the  country."  "No  gate 
can  be  closed." 

As  we  read,  we  seem  to  hear  Robespierre  in  the  trib 
une  of  the  French  Convention  advocating  the  condem 
nation  of  Louis  XVI  without  proof  and  without  trial. 

Having  thus  laid  down  a  mode  of  procedure  lax 
enough  for  his  purpose,  he  proceeds  to  its  application. 
He  makes  the  course  of  the  President  up  to  December, 
1867,  the  main  matter  of  his  arraignment,  without 
which  the  later  acts  charged  in  the  article  "would  have 
remained  unnoticed,  impeachment  would  not  have  been 
ordered ' ' ;  and,  piling  one  abusive  epithet  upon  another, 
branding  the  accused  before  the  court,  the  country  and 
the  world,  as  the  one  "enormous  criminal"  of  his  age, 
he  persists  in  demanding  his  condemnation  for  offences 
for  which  he  not  only  was  not  on  trial,  but  for  which 
his  constitutional  accusers  had  formally  declined  to 
bring  him  to  the  bar.  Let  us  listen  once  more  to  this 
upright  judge,  sworn  "to  do  impartial  justice": 

"Applying  this  rule  to  the  present  proceeding,  it  will 
be  seen  at  once  how  it  brings  before  the  Senate,  without 
any  further  evidence,  a  long  catalogue  of  crime,  affecting 
the  character  of  the  President  beyond  all  possibility  of 


584    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

defence,  and  serving  to  explain  the  latter  acts  upon  which 
the  impeachment  is  founded.  It  was  in  this  chamber,  in 
the  face  of  the  Senate  and  the  ministers  of  foreign  powers, 
and  surrounded  by  the  gaze  of  thronged  galleries,  that 
Andrew  Johnson  exhibited  himself  in  a  state  of  beastly 
intoxication  while  he  took  his  oath  of  office  as  Vice  Presi 
dent  ;  and  all  that  he  has  clone  since  is  of  record  here. 
Much  of  it  appears  on  our  journals.  The  rest  is  in  authen 
tic  documents  published  by  the  order  of  the  Senate.  Never 
was  a  record  more  complete. 

"Here  in  the  Senate  we  know  officially  how  he  has  made 
himself  the  attorney  of  slavery— the  usurper  of  legislative 
power— the  violator,  of  law— the  patron  of  rebels— the  help 
ing  hand  of  the  rebellion— the  kicker  from  office  of  good 
citizens — the  open  bung-hole  of  the  treasury — the  architect 
of  the  'whiskey  ring' — the  stumbling  block  to  all  good  laws 
by  wanton  vetoes  and  then  by  criminal  hindrances ;  all 
these  things  are  known  here  beyond  question.  .  .  . 

' '  This  is  the  transcendent  crime  of  Andrew  Johnson.  For 
the  sake  of  slavery  ...  he  has  set  at  defiance  the  Consti 
tution  and  the  laws  of  the  land  and  he  has  accompanied 
their  unquestionable  usurpation  by  brutalities  and  inde 
cencies  in  office  without  precedent  unless  we  go  back  to  the 
Roman  Emperor  fiddling  or  the  French  monarch  dancing 
among  his  minions.  This  usurpation  with  its  brutalities 
and  indecencies  became  manifest  as  long  ago  as  the  winter 
of  1866.  .  .  . 

"Plainly  he  ought  to  have  been  impeached  and  expelled 
at  that  early  day.  The  case  against  him  was  complete.  .  .  . 
So  strong  is  my  conviction  of  the  fatal  remissness  of  the 
House,  that  I  think  the  Senate  would  do  a  duty  ...  if  it 
reprimanded  the  House  of  Representatives  for  this  delay. 
.  .  .  Meanwhile  the  President  proceeded  with  his  transgres- 


THE    ACQUITTAL  585 

sions.  There  is  nothing  of  usurpation  that  he  has  not  at 
tempted.  ...  It  is  difficult  to  measure  the  vastness  of  this 
usurpation  involving  as  it  did  a  general  nullification. 
Straft'ord  was  not  bolder  when  ...  he  boasted  that  'the 
little  finger  of  prerogative  was  heavier  than  the  loins  of  the 
law.'  .  .  .  No  monarch,  no  despot,  no  sultan,  could  claim 
more  than  an  American  President :  for  he  claimed  all. ' ' 

The  massacres  in  the  South!  It  was  Andrew  John 
son  "who  animated  the  wicked  crew. "  "He  was  at 
the  head  of  the  work. "  "  Fire,  Famine  and  Slaughter 
shriek  forth— 

'  He  let  me  loose,  and  cried  Halloo ! 
To  him  alone  the  praise  is  due!''1 

Referring  to  the  President's  speeches,  this  senator 
could  write  down  and  file  for  preservation  in  our  na 
tional  archives,  such  utterances  as  these :  '  *  From  their 
brutalities  and  indecencies"  they  are  "in  the  nature  of 
a  'criminal  exposure  of  his  person,'  indictable  at  com 
mon  law,  for  which  no  judgment  can  be  too  severe." 
And 

' '  They  were  the  utterances  of  a  drunken  man ;  and  yet  it 
does  not  appear  that  he  was  drunk.  Now  it  is  according 
to  the  precedents  of  our  history  that  a  person  disqualified 
by  drunkenness  shall  be  removed  from  office.  This  was  the 
case  of  Pickering  in  1804.  But  a  sober  man,  whose  con 
duct  suggests  drunkenness,  is  as  bad  at  least  as  if  he  were 
drunk.  Is  he  not  worse?  If  without  the  explanation  of 
drunkenness  he  made  such  harangues,  it  seems  to  me  that 
his  unfitness  for  office  becomes  more  evident,  inasmuch  as 
his  deplorable  condition  is  natural  and  not  abnormal.  The 
drunken  man  has  lucid  intervals;  but  where  is  the  assur- 


586    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ance  of  a  lucid  interval  for  this  perpetual  offender?      De 
rangement  is  with  him  the  normal  condition." 

As  on  all  questions  where  he  took  a  side  he  was  never 
troubled  with  a  shadow  of  a  doubt,  so  now  he  was  ab 
solutely  certain  of  his  cause.  "To  my  vision  the  path 
is  as  clear  as  day.  Never  in  history  was  there  a  great 
case  more  free  from  all  doubt.  If  Andrew  Johnson  is 
not  guilty,  there  never  was  a  political  offender  guilty 
before;  and,  if  his  acquittal  is  taken  as  a  precedent, 
never  can  a  political  offender  be  found  guilty  again. 
The  proofs  are  mountainous." 

Fessenden,  in  his  opinion,  says  with  great  force  and 
dignity : 

''To  the  suggestion  that  popular  opinion  demands  the 
conviction  of  the  President  ...  I  reply  that  he  is  not  on 
trial  before  the  people,  but  before  the  Senate.  .  .  .  The 
people  have  not  heard  the  evidence  as  we  have  heard  it. 
The  responsibility  is  not  on  them,  but  upon  us.  They  have 
not  taken  an  oath  'to  do  impartial  justice  according  to  the 
Constitution  and  the  laws.'  I  have  taken  that  oath.  I 
cannot  render  judgment  upon  their  conviction  nor  can  they 
transfer  to  themselves  my  punishment  if  I  violate  my  own." 

Sumner,  in  the  peroration  he  elaborated  on  the  lines 
of  the  best  models  of  vituperative  oratory,  takes  a  dif 
ferent  view: 

' '  Something  also  has  been  said  of  the  people,  now  watch 
ing  our  proceedings  with  patriotic  solicitude,  and  it  has  been 
proclaimed  that  they  are  wrong  to  intrude  their  judgment. 
I  do  not  think  so.  This  is  a  political  proceeding,  which 
the  people  at  this  moment  are  as  competent  to  decide  as 


THE    ACQUITTAL  587 

the  Senate.  They  are  the  multitudinous  jury;  for,  on 
this  impeachment,  involving  the  public  safety,  the  vicinage 
is  the  whole  country.  It  is  they  who  have  sent  us  here  as 
their  representatives,  and  in  their  name  to  consult  for  the 
common  weal.  In  nothing  can  we  escape  their  judgment, 
least  of  all  on  a  question  like  that  now  before  us.  It  is  a 
mistake  to  suppose  that  the  Senate  only  has  heard  the  evi 
dence.  The  people  have  heard  it  also,  day  by  day,  as  it 
was  delivered,  and  have  carefully  considered  the  case  on 
its  merits,  properly  dismissing  all  apologetic  subtleties.  It 
will  be  for  them  to  review  what  has  been  done.  They  are 
above  the  Senate  and  will  *  re  judge  its  justice.'  .  .  . 

"The  people  cannot  witness  with  indifference  the  aban 
donment  of  the  great  Secretary,  who  organized  their  armies 
against  the  rebellion  and  then  organized  victory.  .  .  .  Nor 
is  it  forgotten  that  the  Senate,  by  two  solemn  votes  of 
more  than  two-thirds,  has  twice  instructed  him  to  stay  at 
the  War  Department,  the  President  to  the  contrary  not 
withstanding.  The  people  will  not  easily  understand  on 
what  principle  of  Constitution,  law,  or  morals,  the  Senate 
can  twice  instruct  the  Secretary  to  stay,  and  then,  by  an 
other  vote,  deliberately  surrender  him  a  prey  to  Presidential 
tyranny.  Talk  of  a  somersault;  talk  of  self-stultification; 
are  not  both  here?" 

The  student  of  our  history,  who  would  gain  a  clear 
and  adequate  idea  of  the  kind  of  man  Charles  Sumner 
really  was,  should  not  confine  his  glance  to  the  haloed 
champion  of  the  negro  slave  or  to  the  unresisting  victim 
of  the  blows  of  Brooks ;  he  should  turn  aside  from  these 
high  altitudes  and  spend  a  profitable  hour  in  perusing 
the  opinion  of  the  senator  sitting  in  judgment  upon 
Andrew  Johnson. 


4388    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

One  more  opinion  claims  a  passing  notice.  John 
Sherman,  the  reader  already  knows,  had  put  himself 
beyond  the  possibility  of  voting  the  President  guilty  of 
a  crime  in  removing  the  Secretary  of  War,  without 
an  utter  loss  of  self-respect ;  and,  therefore,  in  the  opin 
ion  filed  he  is  only  the  more  solemnly  emphatic  in  say 
ing  so.  Referring  to  the  language  of  the  proviso 
adopted  by  the  conference  of  which  he  was  a  member, 
he  writes:  "To  hold  that  the  words  inserted  were  in 
tended  to  warn  the  President  not  to  remove  Stanton 
upon  peril  of  being  convicted  of  a  high  misdemeanor,  is 
to  punish  the  President  as  a  criminal  for  the  violation 
of  a  delphic  oracle. ' '  He  goes  farther : 

"I  stated  explicitly  that  the  act  as  reported  did  not  pro 
tect  from  removal  the  members  of  the  Cabinet  appointed 
by  Mr.  Lincoln,  that  President  Johnson  might  remove  them 
at  pleasure ;  and  I  named  the  Secretary  of  War  as  one  that 
might  be  removed.  ...  I  could  not  conceive  a  case  where 
the  Senate  would  require  the  President  to  perform  his 
great  executive  office  upon  the  advice  and  through  the  heads 
of  departments  personally  obnoxious  to  him,  and  whom  he 
had  not  appointed,  and,  therefore,  no  such  case  was  pro 
vided  for.  .  .  .  This  construction  of  the  law,  made  when 
these  proceedings  could  not  have  been  contemplated,  .  .  . 
is  binding  upon  no  one  but  myself.  But  can  I,  who  made 
it  and  declared  it  to  you,  and  still  believe  it  to  be  the  true 
and  legal  interpretation  of  those  words,  can  I  pronounce 
the  President  guilty  of  crime,  and  by  that  vote  aid  to  re 
move  him  from  his  high  office  for  doing  what  I  declared 
and  still  believe  he  had  a  legal  right  to  do.  God  forbid. 

"A  Roman  Emperor  attained  immortal  infamy  by  post 
ing  his  laws  above  the  reach  of  the  people  and  then  punish- 


THE    ACQUITTAL  58U 

ing  their  violation  as  a  crime.  An  American  senator  would 
excel  this  refinement  of  tyranny,  if,  when  passing  a  law, 
he  declared  an  act  to  be  innocent,  and  then  as  a  judge 
punished  the  same  act  as  a  crime.  For  this  reason  I  could 
not  vote  for  the  resolution  of  the  21st  of  February,  and 
cannot  say  'guilty'  to  these  articles." 

He,  therefore,  acquits  the  President  on  the  charge 
embodied  in  the  first  article;  the  corner-stone  of  the 
impeachment.  And,  yet,  he  convicts  the  President 
under  the  second  and  third  that  'drew  their  whole 
validity  from  the  first ;  for,  if  the  President  might  law 
fully  vacate  the  War  Office,  his  temporary  appointment 
of  Thomas,  with  or  without  statutory  authority,  could 
work  no  harm  to  the  body-politic,  carried  no  signi 
ficance  whatever  and  was  utterly  devoid  of  criminality. 
Even  Sumner  acknowledged  that  the  removal  of  Stan- 
ton  was  "the  pivot  of  the  Impeachment;  so  much  so 
that  the  whole  case  seems  to  revolve  on  this  transac 
tion.  "  And  Fessenden  truly  said  of  the  ad  interim 
appointment : 

"To  hold  that  an  act  of  such  a  character,  prohibited  by 
no  law,  having  the  sanction  of  long  practice,  necessary  for 
the  transaction  of  business,  and  which  the  President  might 
well  be  justified  in  believing  authorized  by  existing  law, 
was  a  high  misdemeanor  justifying  the  removal  of  the 
President  would  in  my  judgment  be,  in  itself,  a  monstrous 
perversion  of  justice,  if  not  of  itself  a  violation  of  the 
Constitution. ' ' 

Sherman  struggles  to  show  that  the  act  of  1863  re 
pealed  the  act  of  1795;  as  if  the  technical  want  of  au- 


590    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

tliority  in  consequence  made  any  difference  whatever  on 
the  question  of  culpability  in  an  ad  interim  appointment 
to  fill  a  vacancy  he  himself  acknowledges  was  lawfully 
made.  He  strives  to  believe  that  the  President  "had 
formed 'a  fixed  resolve  ...  to  fill  the  vacancy  without 
the  advice  of  the  Senate  ' ' ;  and,  in  the  face  of  the  facts 
that  the  nomination  of  Thomas  Ewing  was  sent  to  the 
Senate  as  quickly  as  possible  and  the  nomination  of 
General  Schofield  at  the  moment  of  his  writing  lay 
upon  the  table  of  flie  Senate,  he  claims  that  the  Presi 
dent  i  i  might  have  secured  a  new  Secretary  of  War  by 
sending  a  proper  nomination  to  the  Senate." 

The  eleventh  article,  according  to  the  construction 
put  upon  it  by  the  Chief  Justice,  made  but  one  sub 
stantive  charge,  viz:  an  attempt  to  prevent  Stanton 
from  resuming  his  office  after  the  Senate  disapproved 
his  suspension ;  a  charge  of  no  validity  to  a  senator  who 
believed  the  President  had  a  right  to  remove  the  sus 
pended  officer  altogether.  And,  yet,  the  senator  votes 
the  President  '  guilty '  under  it,  assigning  as  a  reason 
that  the  article  ' '  contains  many  allegations  which  I  re 
gard  in  the  nature  of  inducement,  but  it  includes  within 
it  the  charge  of  wilful  violation  of  law  more  specifically 
set  out  in  the  second,  third  and  eighth  articles;  and  I 
shall  therefore  vote  for  it."  No  mention  is  made  of 
the  ad  interim  appointment  of  Thomas  in  the  eleventh 
article;  and,  according  to  the  reasoning  of  his  opinion, 
he  found  the  President  i guilty'  under  it,  because  the 
matters,  alleged  in  that  article  by  way  of  inducement 
to  the  commission  of  an  offence  of  which  the  senator 
felt  obliged  to  acquit  the  President,  led  up  to  the  com- 


'i-HE    ACQUITTAL  591 

mission  of  an  offence,  charged  in  the  second  article 
but  not  mentioned  in  the  eleventh,  for  which  the  senator 
found  himself  able  to  convict.  In  short,  the  single  act, 
for  the  doing  of  which  Sherman  found  the  President 
guilty  of  a  misdemeanour  deserving  removal  from  office, 
consisted,  wholly,  in  the  issue  of  an  unexecuted  letter 
of  authority  to  fill  temporarily  an  office  vacant,  accord 
ing  to  the  senator's  own  opinion,  de  jure,  but,  owing 
to  the  unlawful  and  successful  resistance  of  the  actual 
incumbent,  never  for  a  moment  vacant  de  facto. 

The  truth  is  that  the  course  of  Sherman  was  calcu 
lated  and  prepared  beforehand.  He  was  one  of  the 
most  prominent  senators  in  the  caucuses  which  were 
held  at  every  stage  of  the  impeachment.  At  an  early 
day  he  must  have  made  known  to  his  associates  in  the 
House  and  the  Senate  the  perplexing  predicament  in 
which  he  stood;  and  there  is  very  little  doubt  that  the 
articles  were  manipulated  into  the  shape  they  took,  as 
it  is  certain  the  order  of  voting  was  changed,  that  he 
might  find  standing-room  with  his  party  in  convicting 
the  President  without  too  ostentatiously  convicting 
himself.  The  event  proved  otherwise,  however.  An 
drew  Johnson  was  acquitted.  It  was  John  Sherman 
who  was  convicted,  and  convicted  by  himself. 

In  the  meantime,  what  had  become  of  the  great  "War 
Minister— the  bone  of  this  loud  contention!  Barricaded 
in  the  interior  of  the  War  Department;  guarded  by 
sentinels  within  and  without;  succoured,  sustained  and 
solaced  by  sympathizing  senators,  representatives  and 
officers  of  the  army ;  labouring  incessantly  through  every 
available  channel  to  compass  the  removal  of  the  chief 


592    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

who  had  presumed  to  attempt  his  own— he  bowed  to  the 
final  vote  of  the  Senate  and,  letting  go  his  hold  of  the 
office  to  which  he  had  so  tenaciously  clung,  dropped 
from  the  surface  of  public  affairs  deeper  than  ever 
plummet  sounded.  He  sent  a  letter  to  the  President 
informing  him,  with  quiet  insolence,  that  the  Senate, 
having  failed  to  support  its  resolution  condemnatory  of 
the  President's  attempt  to  remove  the  Secretary  of  War 
by  a  sufficient  majority  to  turn  the  President  himself 
out  of  office,  he  "relinquished  charge  of  the  War  De 
partment";  and,  then,  he  took  himself  off  the  scene. 
The  President  paid  no  attention  to  his  letter.  The  Sen 
ate  confirmed  the  nomination  of  Schofield  as  his  suc 
cessor.  He  received  the  thanks  of  both  Houses  of  Con 
gress.  But  it  was  everywhere  felt  that  he  was  effaced. 
He  continued  to  reside  in  Washington;  but  the  high 
places  of  authority,  which  he  so  much  coveted,  knew 
him  no  more.  We  chance  to  hear  of  him  in  the  fall 
orating  for  General  Grant,  notwithstanding  the  nominee 
seems  to  have  turned  a  cold  shoulder  to  him.  At  Cleve 
land  and  Philadelphia  and  other  local  centres,  he  is 
heard  extolling  the  great  soldier  as  eminently  fitted  for 
the  high  civil  office  to  which  he  aspired.  In  a  speech 
made  at  his  native  place,  he  told  his  former  neighbours, 
among  other  warm  words  of  praise,  that  General 
Grant's  "capacity  and  integrity  for  civil  administra 
tion  were  equally  manifest  in  the  vast  territory  in  which 
he  operated. ' ' 

A  year  passes  by ;  Grant  has  been  elected  and  inaugu 
rated  ;  and,  in  December,  1869,  Stanton  is  lying  ill  at  his 
residence  at  Washington.  On  Friday,  the  seventeenth 


THE    ACQUITTAL  593 

ui  the  mouth,  to  senator  Chandler  who,  in  company 
with,  two  friends,  calls  on  him,  the  sick  man  "expresses 
the  highest  opinion  of  President  Grant  both  as  to  his 
military  and  civil  capacity. ' '  To  Wade  he  also  remarks : 
"The  country  knows  General  Grant  to  be  a  great  war 
rior;  I  know  he  will  prove  a  great  civilian."  That 
same  night  the  idea  occurs  to  senator  Carpenter  of  Wis 
consin,  "that  something  might  be  done  to  insure  the 
appointment  of  Mr.  Stanton  as  judge  of  the  Supreme 
Court";— an  appointment,  talked  about  and  expected, 
but  that  did  not  come.  The  President  appeared  to  be 
unwilling.  Carpenter  draws  up  a  letter  to  the  President 
recommending  Stanton  for  the  office,  and,  taking  it 
around  the  Chamber,  in  less  than  twenty  minutes  ob 
tains  thirty-seven  signatures  of  Republican  senators. 
The  next  morning,  the  senator  rides  to  Mr.  Stanton 's 
house  and  shows  him  the  letter;  "and"  (to  use  Carpen 
ter's  words)  "as  he  glanced  over  it  the  tears  started 
down  his  cheeks.  He  said  not  a.  word. ' '  The  senator 
carries  the  letter  to  the  White  House,  where  Chandler 
by  previous  arrangement  awaits  him.  The  President 
seems  "delighted  to  have  the  letter"  which  banishes 
as  he  says,  the  last  lingering  scruple  that  troubled  him 
over  the  appointment,  and  he  requests  both  senators  to 
"go  to  Stanton 's  house  and  tell  him  his  name  would  be 
sent  in  on  Monday  morning."  On  receiving  this  mes 
sage  Stanton  exclaims :  * '  The  kindness  of  General 
Grant— it  is  perfectly  characteristic  of  him— will  do 
more  to  cure  me  than  all  the  skill  of  the  doctors."  On 
Monday  (the  twentieth)  the  nomination  of  Edwin  M. 

*  Chandler's  speech,  Globe,  2d  Sess.  42d  Cong.,  pp.  4282,  4283. 
38 


594    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Stanton  for  Associate  Justice  of  the  Supreme  Court 
of  the  United  States,  in  the  place  of  Justice  Grier,  is 
received  by  the  Senate  and  instantly  confirmed.* 

Charles  Sumner  may  now,  again,  take  the  floor.  In 
an  elaborate  philippic  against  President  Grant,  de 
livered  in  the  Senate  May  31,  1872,  he  cites  the  "testi 
mony  of  the  late  Edwin  M.  Stanton"  as  follows: 

"On  reaching  Washington  at  the  opening-  of  Congress  in 
1869,  I  was  pained  to  hear  that  Mr.  Stanton,  lately  Secre 
tary  of  War,  was  in  failing  health.  Full  of  gratitude  for 
his  unsurpassed  services,  and  with  a  sentiment  of  friend 
ship  quickened  by  common  political  sympathies,  I  lost  no 
time  in  seeing  him,  and  repeated  my  visits  until  his  death, 
toward  the  close  of  the  same  month.  My  last  visit  was 
marked  by  a  communication  never  to  be  forgotten.  As  I 
entered  his  bed-room  where  I  found  him  reclining  on  a 
sofa,  propped  up  by  pillows,  he  reached  out  his  hand,  al 
ready  clammy  cold,  and  in  reply  to  my  inquiry  'How  are 
you,'  answered,  'Waiting  for  my  furlough.'  Then  at 
once,  with  singular  solemnity,  he  said,  'I  have  something 
to  say  to  you.'  When  I  was  seated  he  proceeded  without 
one  word  of  introduction:  'I  know  General  Grant  better 
than  any  other  person  in  the  country  can  know  him.  It 
was  my  duty  to  study  him,  and  I  did  so  day  and  night, 
when  I  saw  him  and  when  I  did  not  see  him,  and  now  I 
tell  you  what  I  know,  he  cannot  govern  this  country.' 
The  intensity  of  his  manner  and  the  positiveness  of  his 
judgment  surprised  me,  for  though  I  was  aware  that  the 
late  Secretary  of  War.  did  not  place  the  President  very 
high  in  general  capacity,  I  was  not  prepared  for  a  judg 
ment  so  strongly  couched.  At  last,  after  some  delay,  oc- 

*  Carpenter's  Speech,  Globe,  id.,  App.,  p.  560. 


THE    ACQUITTAL  595 

cupied  in  meditating  his  remarkable  words,  I  observed, 
'  What  you  say  is  very  broad. '  *  It  is  true  it  is  very  broad, ' 
he  replied  promptly.  I  added,  'You  are  tardy;  you  tell 
this  late;  why  did  you  not  say  it  before  his  nomination?' 
He  answered  that  he  was  not  consulted  about  the  nomina 
tion,  and  had  no  opportunity  of  expressing  his  opinion 
upon  it,  besides  being  much  occupied  at  the  time  by  his 
duties  as  Secretary  of  War  and  his  contest  with  the  Presi 
dent.  I  followed  by  saying,  'But  you  took  part  in  the 
Presidential  election,  and  made  a  succession  of  speeches 
for  him  in  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania.'  'I  spoke,'  said  he, 
'but  I  never  introduced  the  name  of  General  Grant.  I 
spoke  for  the  Republican  party  and  the  Republican  cause.' 
This  was  the  last  time  I  saw  Mr.  Stanton.  A  few  days 
later  I  followed  him  to  the  grave  where  he  now  rests.* 

What  shall  we  say!  Was  there  any  real  Stanton 
after  all?  Senator  Carpenter  asserted:  "If  Mr.  Stan- 
ton  made  that  declaration  to  the  Senator  from  Massa 
chusetts  under  the  circumstances  detailed  by  him,  if 
there  is  a  word  of  substantial  truth  in  that  whole  para 
graph,  if  it  is  not  an  infamous  fabrication  from  first  to 
last,  then  Mr.  Stanton  was  the  most  double-faced  and 
dishonest  man  that  ever  lived,  "t  Judge  BlacR,  com 
menting  on  the  eulogistic  testimonials  to  Stanton 's 
clandestine  intercourse  with  the  radicals  while  fawning 
on  Buchanan— which  Henry  Wilson  thrust  upon  the 
public  with  characteristic  unconsciousness  of  their 
damning  import — comes  to  the  same  hypothetical  con 
clusion:  "Surely  if  these  things  are  true,  he  was  the 
most  marvellous  impostor  that  ever  lived  or 

*  Globe,  2d  Sess.  42d  Cong.,  pp.  4112-3. 

f  His  speech  cited  as  above. 

J  Black  to  Wilson,  Galaxy,  June,  1870,  February,  1871. 


596    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Four  days  after  he  attained  the  prize  which,  it  is 
said,  before  his  entrance  into  the  War  Office,  had  been 
the  goal  of  his  ambition— just  after  passing  his  fifty- 
fifth  year— the  news  came  that  Stanton  was  dead. 
Despite  his  illness,  his  decease  came  upon  his  friends, 
as  well  as  the  country,  with  a  shock  of  surprise. 
People  were  at  a  loss  to  account  for  it.  Dark  rumours, 
engendered  by  the  mysterious  secrecy  enshrouding  the 
last  hours  of  the  dying,  and  the  obsequies  of  the  dead, 
man,  were  soon  everywhere  afloat,  and  are  not  at  rest 
even  to  this  day.  It  would  seem  as  if  the  Genius  of 
Duplicity  could  not  forsake  so  congenial  a  spirit  even 
in  the  forecourt  of  the  Undeceivable  King. 

[As  a  matter  of  fact,  Stanton  never  was  a  justice  of  the 
Supreme  Court.  He  was  appointed  in  place  of  Judge  Grier, 
whose  resignation  did  not  take  effect  until  February  the  first, 
1870.  His  commission,  however,  was  issued  to  him,  he  was 
sworn  in  hurriedly  in  the  article  of  death,  and  a  sum  equal 
to  one  year's  salary  of  the  office  was  appropriated  by  Congress 
to  his  widow  and  children.  See  Carpenter's  speech  ut  supra 
and  Globe,  2d  Sess.  41st  Cong.,  pp.  1799-1800,  2081.] 


CONCLUSION 

THE  Congress  sat  until  the  twenty-seventh  day  of 
July  and,  then,  with  an  eye  to  the  result  of  the  cam 
paign,  adjourned  only  to  the  twenty-first  of  September, 
on  which  day,  unless  otherwise  ordered,  the  two 
Houses  were  to  further  adjourn  until  the  regular  day 
of  meeting.  But,  although  the  President  still  kept  up 
the  fight  over  reconstruction  with  undiminished  ardour 
and  with  a  confidence  in  the  righteousness  of  his  hope 
less  cause  which  the  process  of  time  proved  to  be  not 
ill-founded;— vetoing  the  bills  passed  for  the  admis 
sion  of  those  of  the  Southern  states  which  the  Con 
gress  decided  to  be  sufficiently  Africanized  to  vote  on 
the  *  loyal'  side  in  the  presidential  election— no  further 
effort  was  made  to  impeach  him ;  the  time  drawing  nigh 
when  by  the  expiration  of  his  term  the  majority  would 
be  rid  of  him,  and  the  fiercest  radical  having  had 
enough  of  so  cumbrous  and  costly  a  remedy.  Thaddeus 
Stevens,  indeed,  on  the  seventh  day  of  July,  exhibited 
five  additional  articles  of  impeachment,  with  no  intent 
that  they  should  be  considered,  but  merely  to  serve  as 
a  vehicle  for  a  valedictory  tirade,  of  which  the  following 
extract  may  be  fitly  called  the  last  words  of  this  re 
markable  man. 

"  After  mature  reflection  and  thorough  examination  of 
ancient  and  modern  history,  I  have  come  to  the  fixed  con 
clusion  that  neither  in  Europe  nor  America  will  the  Chief 

597 


598    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Executive  of  a  nation  be  again  removed  by  peaceful  means. 
If  he  retains  the  money  and  the  patronage  of  the  Govern 
ment  it  will  be  found,  as  it  has  been  found,  stronger  than 
the  law  and  impenetrable  to  the  spear  of  justice.  If  tyr 
anny  becomes  intolerable,  the  only  resource  will  be  found 
in  the  dagger  of  Brutus.  God  grant  that  it  may  never 
be  used. 

"I  can  recollect  but  two  men  whom  I  deem  absolutely 
impenetrable  to  temptation,  he  of  Athens  and  he  of  Bethle 
hem.  The  counselor  who  gives  the  chief  suggestions  to 
our  acquitted  President  did  not  deem  the  latter  above  cor 
ruption.  He  took  him  to  the  top  of  the  highest  mountain 
and  offered  him  all  the  kingdoms  of  the  earth  to  bow  down 
and  worship  him.  .  .  . 

"My  sands  are  nearly  run  and  I  can  only  see  with  the 
eye  of  faith.  I  am  fast  descending  the  downhill  of  life, 
at  the  foot  of  which  stands  an  open  grave.  But  you,  sir, 
are  promised  length  of  days  and  a  brilliant  career.  If 
you  and  your  compeers  can  fling  away  ambition  and  realize 
that  every  human  being,  however  lowly  born  or  degraded 
by  fortune,  is  your  equal,  that  every  inalienable  right  that 
belongs  to  you  belongs  also  to  him,  truth  and  righteousness 
will  spread  over  the  land,  and  you  will  look  down  from  the 
top  of  the  Rocky  mountains  upon  an  empire  of  one  hundred 
million  of  happy  people. 

"Still,  we  must  remember  not  to  place  our  trust  in 
princes,  for  we  have  seen  that  in  the  richest  heart,  in  the 
most  cultivated  mind,  adorned  with  every  literary  grace, 
keen  in  argument  as-  the  Stagerite  and  fortified  with 
an  outward  shield  of  bronzed  austerity  which  seemed  to 
forbid  the  approach  of  levity  or  corruption ;  this  richest 
composition  of  human  mold  may  be  the  abode  of  malignity, 
avarice,  corroding  lust,  and  uncontrollable  ambition,  as  the 


CONCLUSION  599 

owl,  the  prairie-dog,  and  rattlesnake  nestle  together  in  lov 
ing  harmony  in  the  richest  soil  of  the  prairie."* 

He  remained  at  his  post  to  the  end  of  the  session  but 
he  was  evidently  struggling  with  death.  Daily  he  was 
carried  up  the  stairs  leading  to  the  House  by  coloured 
servants  to  whom,  with  that  grim  humour  of  his,  he 
would  say:  "Boys,  I  wonder  who  will  carry  me  when 
you  are  all  dead ! '  'f  He  died  in  Washington  two  weeks 
after  the  adjournment.  In  his  will  he  directed  his 
body  to  be  buried  at  a  spot  chosen  by  himself  in  a 
private  cemetery  at  Lancaster,  and  the  following  in 
scription,  prepared  by  himself,  placed  upon  his  tomb: 

"I  repose  in  this  quiet  and  secluded  spot,  not  from  any 
natural  preference  for  solitude,  but,  finding  other  ceme 
teries  limited  by  charter  rules  as  to  race,  I  have  chosen  it 
that  I  might  be  enabled  to  illustrate  in  my  death  the  prin 
ciples  which  I  have  advocated  through  a  long  life— the 
equality  of  man  before  his  Creator." 

While  making  no  provision  for  the  care  of  his  own 
grave,  he  set  apart  an  ample  sum  for  the  care  of  his 
mother's,  ordering  "that  the  sexton  keep  the  grave  in 
good  order,  and  plant  roses  and  other  cheerful  flowers 
at  each  of  the  four  corners  of  the  grave  every  spring "; 
and  he  left  a  legacy  of  one  thousand  dollars  to  the 
church  of  which  his  mother  was  a  member,  adding: 

"  I  do  this  out  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  my  mother, 
to  whom  I  owe  whatever  little  of  prosperity  I  have  had 
on  earth,  which,  small  as  it  is,  I  desire  emphatically  to 
acknowledge." 

*  Globe,  2d  SPSS.  40th  Cong.,  pp.  3700-1. 

t  Julian's  Political  Recollections,  p.  313. 


600    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Simmer,  for  wlioni  he  bore  an  instinctive  antipathy, 
closed  the  eulogy  he  pronounced  upon  him  in  the  Senate 
with  these  eloquent  words : 

"I  see  him  now,  as  I  have  so  often  seen  him  during  life. 
His  venerable  form  moves  slowly  and  with  uncertain  steps ; 
but  the  gathered  strength  of  years  is  in  his  countenance 
and  the  light  of  victory  on  his  path.  Politician,  calculator, 
time-server,  stand  aside !  A  hero-statesman  passes  to  his 
reward. ' '  * 


Here,  this  history,  in  accordance  with  its  title,  ought 
to  end.  But  a  sketch  of  the  after-career  of  the  man 
who  was  the  only  President  of  the  United  States  ever 
impeached  and  who  came  within  one  vote  of  being  con 
victed  and  removed  from  that  high  office,  seems  to  us 
not  an  inappropriate  appendix. 

Before  the  Democratic  national  convention  that  met 
in  the  city  of  New  York  on  the  fourth  day  of  July,  1868, 
Andrew  Johnson,  without  doubt,  was  the  logical  candi 
date.  He  had  been  the  protagonist  of  the  opposition  to 
the  reconstruction  acts.  He  had  made  the  fight.  He 
represented  as  no  other  man  could  one  side  of  the  real 
issue.  But  on  the  other  hand  he  had  no  distinctive 
party  behind  him.  His  own  section  he  had  fought 
against.  The  party  that  had  elected  him  Vice  Presi 
dent  now  regarded  him  with  universal  hatred.  The 
minority  party  looked  coldly  on  him  as  a  deserter  from 
its  ranks.  And,  what  was  most  unjust  of  all,  he  was 

*  Stevens's  obsequies,  Globe,  3d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  p.  129  et  seq.  Sum- 
ner's  eulogy,  p.  150-1. 


CONCLUSION  601 

considered  out  of  the  field  because  he  happened  to  be 
a  citizen  of  a  Southern  state.  Johnson,  himself,  made 
no  serious  effort  to  obtain  the  nomination ;  at  no  time  en 
tertaining  the  faintest  expectation  of  receiving  it.  Two 
days  before  the  convention  met,  replying  to  a  letter 
from  ten  eminent  citizens  of  the  city  of  New  York 
inquiring  whether  he  would  allow  his  name  to  be  pre 
sented  to  that  body,  he  wrote : 

"I  am  not  ambitious  of  further  service— I  may  say, 
indeed,  of  further  endurance  in  that  elevated  and  re 
sponsible  position,  unless  by  a  call  so  general  and  un 
equivocal  that  it  would  be  an  endorsement  by  the  people 
of  my  endeavors  to  defend  the  Constitution  and  the  re 
served  rights  of  the  several  commonwealths  composing  what 
was  once  in  fact  the  Federal  Union.  Of  such  approval, 
in  the  present  temper  of  parties,  I  can,  perhaps,  have  no 
reasonable  expectation. 

"All  history  proves  that  men  who,  in  official  position, 
oppose  for  any  reason  the  cherished  schemes  devised  by 
factions  to  acquire  power,  usually  find  more  determined 
assailants  than  open  and  earnest  defenders.  Hence,  in 
resisting  measures  which,  although  sustained  by  Congress, 
I  honestly  believed  to  be  encroachments  upon  the  Consti 
tution,  my  task  has  been  made  arduous  and  seemingly 
ungracious  by  an  opposition  powerful,  well-organized,  and 
possessing  a  controlling  influence  in  the  halls  of  legislation 
unprecedented  in  the  history  of  the  country.  .  .  . 

"In  the  midst  of  these  embarrassments  I  have  not  been 
discouraged,  when  from  the  public  prints,  or  from  some 
unusually  frank  and  outspoken  friend,  I  have  heard  that 
I  'have  no  party.'  The  suggestion  has  only  served  to 
remind  me  of  a  memorable  remark,  uttered  when  faction 


602    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

ruled  high  in  Rome,  that  '  Caesar  had  a  party,  and  Pompey 
and  Crassus  each  a  party,  but  that  the  Commonwealth  had 
none.'  .  .  . 

''Constrained,  in  occupying  my  position  as  the  Federal 
Executive,  to  abide  in  silence  wrongs  and  encroachments 
of  the  most  insidious  as  well  as  desperate  character,  or 
sometimes,  when  incapable  of  arresting  them,  permitted 
only  to  employ  futile  protests ;  compelled,  with  only  the 
privilege  of  remonstrance  or  the  terrible  alternative  of 
counter-revolution,  to  resist  revolutionary  projects ;  obliged 
to  stand  in  the  attitude  of  a  mere  spectator,  whilst  the 
invaluable  time  of  the  nation  has  been  wasted  in  causeless 
assaults  upon  myself  and  office  for  the  benefit  of  a  party, 
I  cannot  complain  if  the  people,  while  witnessing  the  scene, 
have  not  been  able  to  make  my  cause  thoroughly  their 
own — the  defence  of  the  Constitution  and  laws  their  own 
battle." 

He  received  sixty-five  votes  on  the  first  ballot,  next 
in  number  to  Pendleton  who  led  with  one  hundred  and 
five.  The  nomination  was  forced  on  Horatio  Seymour 
whose  chances  of  election  were  virtually  destroyed  by 
the  advocacy  of  the  ' '  greenback ' '  heresy  in  the  platform 
and  by  an  indiscreet  letter  written  by  General  Blair 
before  he  was  nominated  for  Vice  President,  recom 
mending',  in  substance,  armed  resistance  to  congres 
sional  reconstruction,  to  be  led  by  the  President-elect. 
Still,  when  the  Houses  met,  in  September,  the  result 
was  thought  so  doubtful  that  a  sufficient  number  of 
members  assembled  to  make  a  quorum  and  resorted  to 
the  extraordinary  expedient  of  adjourning  until  the 
eleventh  of  October,  the  Friday  succeeding  the  state 
elections  in  Pennsylvania,  Ohio  and  Indiana — on  that 


CONCLUSION  603 

day,  unless  otherwise  ordered,  to  further  adjourn  to  the 
tenth  day  of  November— one  week  after  the  presi 
dential  election— and  on  that  day,  unless  otherwise 
ordered,  to  finally  adjourn  to  the  regular  day  of  meet 
ing.  Had  the  three  October  states  failed  them,  the 
majority  were  prepared,  at  the  first  adjourned  session, 
to  adopt  some  revolutionary  measures  to  stem  the  ris 
ing  tide  of  "disloyalty"  in  the  North;  and,  had  they 
been  beaten  in  the  general  election,  their  November 
session  would  have  been  occupied  in  devising  means 
for  doing  with  Seymour  what  was  done  aftewards  with 
Tilden.  As  it  was,  the  October  states  were  carried  by 
the  Republicans  but  by  the  narrowest  majorities;  and, 
this  settling  the  result,  the  two  adjourned  meetings  were 
merely  formal. 

When  the  Congress  met  for  the  regular  session,  the 
message  of  the  President  interrupted  the  jubilation  of 
the  majority  over  their  triumph.  Pleading  his  con 
stitutional  duty  "from  time  to  time"  to  "give  to  the 
Congress  information  of  the  state  of  the  Union  and 
recommend  to  their  consideration  such  measures  as  he 
shall  judge  necessary  and  expedient,"  the  President 
gravely  informed  the  two  Houses  that  their  reconstruc 
tion  acts  "after  a  fair  trial"  had  "substantially  failed 
and  proved  pernicious  in  their  results  and  there  seems 
to  be  no  good  reason  why  they  should  remain  longer 
on  the  statute-book ' ' ;  that  '  *  the  legislator  or  ruler  who 
has  the  wisdom  and  magnanimity  to  retrace  his  steps, 
when  convinced  of  error,  will  sooner  or  later  be  re 
warded  with  the  respect  and  gratitude  of  an  intelligent 
and  patriotic  people";  that  "legislation  producing 


604    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

such  baneful  consequences  should  be  abrogated ' ' ;  that 
other  acts,  such  as  the  " Tenure-of-office  bill"  and  that 
section  of  the  army  appropriation  act  which  interfered 
with  the  President's  constitutional  functions  as  com- 
mander-in-chief,  had  been  "passed  under  the  influence 
of  party  passion  and  sectional  prejudice"  and  were 
"unwarranted  by  the  Constitution";  and  that 

"the  repeal  of  all  such  laws  would  be  accepted  by  the  Amer 
ican  people  as  at  least  a  partial  return  to  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  Government,  and  an  indication  that  here 
after  the  Constitution  is  to  be  made  the  nation's  safe  and 
unerring  guide.  They  can  be  productive  of  no  permanent 
benefit  to  the  country,  and  should  not  be  permitted  to  stand 
as  so  many  monuments  of  the  deficient  wisdom  which  has 
characterized  our  recent  legislation." 

To  this  language  the  Senate  listened  with  visible  im 
patience.  But,  when,  in  the  course  of  an  exposition 
of  the  financial  condition  of  the  government  and  the 
unprecedent  amount  of  the  public  expenditures,  the 
President  declared  that { i  one  hundred  millions  annually 
are  expended  for  the  military  force,  a  large  portion  of 
which  is  employed  in  the  execution  of  laws  both  un 
necessary  and  unconstitutional" —the  majority  could 
bear  it  no  longer.  Conness  started  to  his  feet,  inter 
rupted  the  secretary  and  moved  that  the  further  read 
ing  of  the  "offensive  document"  be  dispensed  with. 
Howe  thought  the  Senate  not  bound  to  listen  to  a  "lec 
ture"  so  disrespectful  in  language.  Wilson  thought  it 
both  disrespectful  and  untruthful,  calling  the  Presi 
dent  "a  disappointed,  bad  man";  to  which  character- 


CONCLUSION  605 

ization,  Cameron  subjoined:  "he  has  disgraced  the 
place  he  holds  for  nearly  four  years."  It  was  not 
until  they  had  slept  upon  the  question  that  the  senators 
came  to  the  conclusion  Morton  expressed,  that  "the 
refusal  to  hear  it  will  be  regarded  as  a  mere  matter  of 
spite,  and  will  do  the  President  less  harm  than  it  will 
do  ourselves ' ' ;  and  the  reading  of  the  message  was  com 
pleted. 

The  method  of  treatment  adopted  by  the  House  was 
more  effective.  The  message  was  read  through  to  un- 
listening  ears  and  then  the  majority  pounced  upon  an 
unlucky  paragraph  suggesting  a  plan  for  the  extin 
guishment  of  the  public  debt : 

"Our  national  credit  should  be  sacredly  observed;  but 
in  making  provision  for  our  creditors  we  should  not  for 
get  what  is  due  to  the  masses  of  the  people.  It  may  be 
assumed  that  the  holders  of  our  securities  have  already 
received  upon  their  bonds  a  larger  amount  than  their,  orig 
inal  investment,  measured  by  a  gold  standard.  Upon  this 
statement  of  facts  it  would  seem  but  just  and  equitable 
that  the  six  per  cent,  interest  now  paid  by  the  Government 
should  be  applied  to  the  reduction  of  the  principal  in  semi 
annual  installments,  which  in  sixteen  years  and  eight 
months  would  liquidate  the  entire  national  debt.  Six  per 
cent,  in  gold  would  at  the  present  rates  be  equal  to  nine 
per  cent,  in  currency,  and  equivalent  to  the  payment  of 
the  debt  one  and  a  half  times  in  a  fraction  less  than  seven 
teen  years.  This,  in  connection  with  all  the  other  advan 
tages  derived  from  their  investment,  would  afford  to  the 
public  creditors  a  fair  and  liberal  compensation  for  the  use 
of  their  capital,  and  with  this  they  should  be  satisfied.  The 
lessons  of  the  past  admonish  the  lender  that  it  is  not  well 


606    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

to   be   over-anxious   in   exacting   from   the   borrower   rigid 
compliance  with  the  letter  of  the  bond." 

This  proposition  Washburne  considered  "  plain,  un 
disguised  repudiation, ' '  and  denounced  it ' '  as  a  disgrace 
to  the  country  and  to  the  Chief  Magistrate  who  has 
sent  in  this  message."  Schenck  called  it  "a  most  gross, 
shameless  and  infamous  proposition."  Broomall 
offered  a  resolution  declaring  "all  forms  and  degrees 
of  repudiation  of  national  indebtedness  odious  to  the 
American  people"  —which  was  adopted  on 'the  succeed 
ing  Monday.  The  Senate,  following  in  the  wake  of  the 
House,  "utterly  disapproved  and  condemned"  the 
proposition,  but  not  until  after  a  denunciatory  discus 
sion  of  some  days.  Several  senators  worked  them 
selves  into  a  towering  rage  over  it.  Nye  shuddered  at 
it ;  "  it  is  a  great  crime  to  suggest  it, ' '  he  exclaimed  with 
unwonted  seriousness;  "it  is  a  crime  to  think  of  it; 
and  a  double  crime  for  "the  Executive  to  send  forth  that 
alarming  sentiment  to  the  country."  Warner— Ohio's 
precious  gift  to  Alabama— who  gloried,  as  he  said, 
"in  that  progressive  spirit  which  made  him  a  carpet 
bagger,"  could  not  resist  the  promptings  of  his  honest 
soul  to  offer  a  resolution  distinctly  stigmatizing  it  as 
"dishonest."  Howard  branded  it  as  a  "foul  recom 
mendation,"  "a  recommendation  of  piracy  and  rob 
bery." 

The  whole  force  of  these  heated  epithets  rests  upon 
the  assumption  that  the  President  meant  to  recommend 
the  plan  he  outlined  as  a  mode  of  liquidation  compul 
sory  upon  the  bondholders.  And,  read  by  itself,  it 


CONCLUSION  607 

must  be  acknowledged  that  the  paragraph  is  susceptible 
of  this  construction.  But,  as  was  clearly  pointed  out 
by  senators  friendly  to  the  President,  when  read  in 
connection  with  the  context,  the  plan  suggested,  so  far 
from  being  compulsory,  presupposed  the  consent  of  the 
bondholders,  who,  the  President  himself  conjectures, 
may  not  "be  averse  to  a  settlement"  "which  would 
yield  them  a  fair  remuneration. ' ' 

At  the  close  of  the  message,  the  President  again  re 
commends  the  proposal  of  a  constitutional  amendment 
to  which  he  had  in  vain  called  the  attention  of  the  Con 
gress  by  a  special  message  in  July.  Its  three  main  pro 
visions,  (1)  the  election  of  the  President  and  Vice 
President  directly  by  the  people,  (2)  the  election  of 
senators  in  the  same  manner,  (3)  the  limitation  of  the 
term  of  federal  judges  to  a  period  of  years,  had  been 
the  subject  of  his  advocacy  even  in  ante-war  days.  The 
first  two  are  still  subjects  of  increasing  popular  agita 
tion,  but  the  third  has  never  as  yet  met  with  much 
favour.  To  these  was  added"  a  fourth,  manifestly  the 
fruit  of  the  Impeachment.  He  recommends  a  distinct 
designation  of  the  person  to  discharge  the  duties  of 
President  in  case  of  vacancy  of  both  presidency  and  vice 
presidency,  and  the  person  so  designated  not  to  be  a 
member  of  the  legislative  department,  as  heretofore,  for 
the  reason, as  appears  by  the  special  message,  that  "both 
are  interested  in  producing  a  vacancy  and  .  .  .  are 
members  of  the  tribunal  by  whose  decree  a  vacancy  may 
me  produced. ' '  On  the  contrary,  the  presidency  should 

*  aiobc,   3d   Sess.   40th   Cong.,  pp.   28-0,  44   in   Senate,  pp.   33-4   in 
House.      Dixon's  speech  in  App.,  p.  44. 


608    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

devolve  on  the  several  members  of  the  Cabinet  in  an 
order  to  be  named,  and  thus  the  successorship  be  con 
fined  to  the  executive  department  where  the  vacancies 
belong.  This  desirable  reform  has  since  (1886)  been 
effected,  not  by  constitutional  amendment,  but  by  act  of 
Congress.* 

On  Christmas  of  the  year  1868— a  season  most  appro 
priate  for  so  beneficent  a  gift — the  President  issued  his 
last  amnesty  proclamation.  The  three  preceding  proc 
lamations—May,  1865,  September,  1867,  July,  1868— 
exhibited  an  ever-narrowing  range  of  exceptions,  the 
one  of  July  excepting  only  those  offenders  actually 
under  indictment.  Now,  even  this  last  limit  was  swept 
away;  and  Andrew  Johnson  enjoyed  the  enviable 
privilege  of  proclaiming,  i '  In  the  name  of  the  sovereign 
people  of  the  United  States,"  "unconditionally  and 
without  reservation,  to  all  and  to  every  person  who 
directly  or  indirectly  participated  in  the  late  insurrec 
tion  or  rebellion,  a  full  pardon  and  amnesty  for  the 
offence  of  treason  against  the  United  States,  or  of  adher 
ing  to  their  enemies  during  the  late  civil  war,  with 
restoration  of  all  rights,  privileges  and  immunities 
under  the  Constitution  and  the  laws."  The  Senate, 
not  approving  of  this  indiscriminate  manner  of  dealing 
out  relief — even  to  the  unrepentant  Jefferson  Davis— 
called  upon  the  President  for  his  authority.  The  Presi 
dent  replied  that  his  authority  was  the  Federal  Con 
stitution  "understood  to  be  and  regarded"  by  him  "as 
the  supreme  law  of  the  land, ' '  the  second  section  of  the 
second  article  of  which  provided  that  the  President 

*  For  Message  see  McPh.  Recon.,  p.  384. 


CONCLUSION  609 

' '  shall  have  power  to  grant  reprieves  and  pardons ' ' ; 
and,  also,  "the  precedent  established  by  Washington  in 
1795,  and  followed  by  Presidents  Adams  in  1800,  Madi 
son  in  1815,  Lincoln  in  1863,"  and  himself  in  1865.  1867, 
and  1868.* 

The  sole  achievement  of  this  session  was  the  adoption 
of  the  fifteenth  amendment  to  the  Constitution,  designed 
to  guarantee  manhood  suffrage  to  the  negroes  through 
out  the  land ;  over  which  it  is  not  our  purpose  to  linger. 
We  cannot  refrain,  however,  from  giving  a  brief  account 
of  an  attempt  at  legislation  which,  though  unsuccessful 
for  the  time  being,  is  memorable  because  of  the  light  it 
reflects  on  the  impeachment  and  trial  of  the  President. 
On  the  eleventh  day  of  January,  1869,  not  yet  a  year 
since  the  House  impeached  Andrew  Johnson  for  its 
alleged  violation,  Washburne — the  fidus  Achates  of  the 
President-elect  who,  it  was  understood  on  all  hands,, 
desired  the  total  repeal  of  the  Tenure-of-ofnce  act— in 
troduced  a  bill  for  that  purpose.  It  was  read  a  first 
and  second  time,  the  main  question  was  ordered,  and,, 
with  but  a  feeble  murmur  of  remonstrance  from  a 
single  member,  the  bill  was  instantly  passed;  Boutwell, 
Bingham,  Butler  and  Wilson,  who  had  lauded  it  as  the 
palladium  of  the  Republican  officeholder  and  denounced 
its  violation  as  a  sacrilege  of  the  most  heinous  kind, 
joining  with  the  Democrats,  who  had  always  condemned 
it  as  unconstitutional  and  pernicious,  in  sweeping  the 
measure  from  the  statute  book.  In  the  Senate,  however, 
although  the  majority  were  just  as  eager  to  effect  the 
repeal,  there  lingered  some  sense  of  shame.  The  bill, 

*  For  Proclamation,  id.,  p.  419. 
39 


610    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

on  coming  from  the  House,  was  referred  to  a  committee, 
and  the  committee  reported  it  back  with  an  amendment 
in  the  form  of  a  substitute  amounting  to  repeal  in  a 
disguised  form.  The  principal  clause  of  the  first  section 
of  the  existing  act  prescribing  the  tenure  of  all  civil 
offices  (not  inferior),  was  retained  but  the  heart  was 
taken  out  of  it  by  converting  the  famous  proviso  into 
an  unconditional  exception  of  cabinet  officers,  and  by 
giving  the  President  arbitrary  power  to  suspend  any 
officer  during  the  recess ;  thus  of  course  dispensing  with 
the  necessity  of  stating  his  reasons  in  his  report  to  the 
Senate.  They  left  just  enough  of  the  old  law  to  save  the 
consistency  of  such  senators  as  Edmunds  and  Howe, 
whose  asseverations  that  the  act  was  not  legislation  l  i  for 
to-day,  or  to-morrow,  or  the  next  year,  or  the  next  four 
years,  but  for  the  country  and  the  future, ' '  still  echoed 
from  the  walls  of  the  chamber.  Even  as  it  was,  some 
senators  with  refreshing  candour  avowed  their  real  de 
sire.  Said  Morton :  "I  am  in  favor  of  the  total  repeal 
of  the  law.  I  believe  it  was  a  mistake  from  the  be 
ginning.  I  do  not  believe  that  the  country  or  the  Repub 
lican  party  ever  derived  any  benefit  from  it.  ...  This 
amendment  is  good  so  far  as  it  goes  in  allowing  the 
President  to  choose  the  members  of  his  Cabinet  .  .  .  ; 
the  idea  of  ever  preventing  a  President  from  doing  that 
was  absurd,  was  contrary  to  the  very  nature  of  adminis 
tration."* 

The  debate  was  postponed  and  the  subject  was  not 
resumed  at  this  session.  But,  as  soon  as  the  new  Con 
gress  assembled,  the  perfunctory  contest  between  the 

*  Glole,  3d  Sess.  40th  Cong.,  pp.  936-7  in  Senate,  pp.  282-3  in  House. 


CONCLUSION  611 

two  Houses  was  recommenced.  President  Grant  de 
mands  a  free  hand.  The  House  again  passes  a  bill  of 
total  repeal.  The  senators  would  fain  accommodate  the 
President,  but  some  of  them  are  still  ashamed  to  stultify 
themselves  so  far.  At  last,  the  troublesome  business  is 
compromised  by  preserving  for  decency 's  sake  two  frag 
ments  of  the  famous  law.  One  looks  substantial — pro 
hibiting,  apparently,  all  removals  except  by  the 
authority  making  the  appointment;  but,  as  is  per 
ceptible  on  a  closer  glance,  confining  its  application  to 
offices  having  a  fixed  term  and  therefore  not  including 
the  heads  of  departments.  The  other  makes  what  might 
have  been  so  far  substantial  in  the  first  nugatory  by 
granting  to  the  President  an  unlimited  arbitrary  power 
of  suspension  in  respect  to  all  civil  offices  during  recess 
until  the  end  of  the  next  session  of  the  Senate ;  nomina 
tions  sent  in  to  be  followed  in  case  of  disapproval,  not 
by  the  reinstatement  of  the  displaced  officer,  but  by— 
another  nomination.* 

Meanwhile,  the  bondsman  and  intended  victim  of  the 
statute  which  its  authors  are  now  so  diligent  in  clearing 
away  from  the  path  of  his  successor  is  quietly  prepar 
ing  for  his  exit.    The  ' l  Plebeian  Boy, ' '  as  he  styled  liim-1 
self  in  his  inaugural  address  as  Vice  President,  after  ^ 
having  fought  his  way  through  every  grade  of  office  up 
to  the  highest,  there  to  find  no  rest  or  respite  but,  on  the 
contrary,  the  heaviest  fighting  of  his  life,  is  now  putting 
off  his  well-worn  armour.    Beaten  at  every  point,  it  was  , 
only  by  the  merest  chance  that  he  has  not  been  degraded 
and  deposed.     No  administration  was  ever  so  utterly 

*  Globe,  1st  Sess.  41st  Cong.,  pp.  40,  394-5,  402-6. 


612    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

thwarted  in  its  substantial  aims.  No  President  ever  laid 
down  his  office  so  bereft  of  a  party.  No  lifelong  public 
f functionary  ever  retired  from  the  stage  of  affairs  whose 
lapse  into  oblivion  looked  so  final.  Amid  the  enthusiasm 
.aroused  by  the  inauguration  of  'the  Conquering  Hero 
of  the  Civil  War,'  the  whole  world  seemed  to  have 
turned  its  back  upon  him.  His  sun  was  not  only  setting 
and  in  clouds  and  darkness,  but  it  appeared  to  have 
already  set— gone  down  before  its  appointed  time.  In 
the  gorgeous  pageant  with  which  the  incoming  President 
was  ushered  into  his  high  place,  there  was  no  room  for 
him.  John  Adams  absconded  from  the  capital  rather 
than  face  his  successful  competitor;  and  Jefferson,  in 
consequence,  rode  to  his  inauguration  alone.  Jackson 
shunned  all  personal  intercourse  with  his  predecessor 
whom  he  held  responsible  for  the  slanders  heaped  upon 
his  wife  in  the  recent  campaign— slanders  which  he  be 
lieved  had  hastened  her  death;  and  the  second  Adams 
was  absent  from  the  inauguration.  With  these  two  ex 
ceptions,  from  the  foundation  of  the  government,  when 
ever  there  was  an  outgoing  as  well  as  an  incoming  Presi 
dent,  the  two  chief  figures  sat  side  by  side  in  the  same 
carriage  in  the  procession  and  stood  side  by  side  at  the 
taking  of  the  oath.  But,  on  the  present  occasion,  the 
figure  of  Andrew  Johnson  was  conspicuous  by  its 
absence.  Not  because  the  outgoing  President  was  not 
ready  to  discharge  his  share  of  the  ceremony.  Johnson 
;had  not  a  particle  of  that  species  of  vanity  which  drives 
its  possessor  into  foolishness  through  the  chagrin  of  de 
feat  ;  and  he  was  of  too  magnanimous  a  nature  to  allow 
his  personal  disputes  to  interfere  with  the  proper  per- 


CONCLUSION  613 

formance  of  a  great  public  function.  But  the  conqueror 
of  Lee  could  not  get  over  the  question  of  veracity  that 
had  been  so  nakedly  thrust  upon  him  by  the  President  - 

with  his  Cabinet  at  his  back,  and  he  refused  to  ride  in  \  \S 
the  same  carriage  or  walk  arm-in-arm  with  a  civilian  of  I 
so  militant  a  disposition.     So,   with   the  booming  of 
cannon,  the  beating  of  drums,  the  ringing  of  bells  and 
the  strains  of  martial  music,— the  Hero  of  the  hour, 
sitting  alone  with  his  resentment,  swept  up  the  Avenue 
with  the  shouting  multitude  at  his  heels,  leaving  the 
despised  Apostate  behind. 

And  he?  So  far  from  being  daunted  or  discouraged 
in  the  slightest  degree,  the  despised  Apostate  acted  as 
though  he  believed  the  real  triumph  was  his  own.  Up 
to  the  last  minute  of  the  last  hour  of  that  term  which 
his  adversaries  denied  him  in  theory  and  of  which  they 
tried  to  deprive  him  in  fact,  he  remained  at  his  post; 
and  then,  as  the  clock  struck  noon  on  the  fourth  day 
of  March,  1869,  while  his  successor  was  taking  the  oath 
on  the  portico  of  the  capitol,  he  stepped  out  of  the  front 
door  of  the  White  House,  stepped  down  into  the  street 
and  took  up  his  place  again  in  the  ranks  of  the  common 
people.  Such  a  thing  as  final  defeat  he  never  for  a 
moment  acknowledged.  The  want  of  a  party  he  did 
not  feel.  Obscurity  was  his  birth-place  and  had  no 
terrors  for  him.  The  unbroken  isolation  in  which  he  | 
found  himself,  so  far  from  cowing  his  spirits,  raised  I  \/ 
them  to  an  unwonted  height  of  self-glorification.  At  a  4 
moment  when  he  seemed  buried  beneath  a  popular 
repudiation  almost  universal,  he  thought  it  no  presump 
tion  to  put  himself  on  the  same  level  with  the  most 


614    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

illustrious  and  the  most  masterful  of  his  predecessors, 
and,  like  Washington  and  Jackson,  speak  to  the  people 
in  the  language  of  a  father  of  his  country.  Side  by 
side  with  the  Inaugural  Address  of  President  Grant— 
of  which  all  that  is  memorable  now  are  the  declaration 
that,  while  feeling  ' '  the  responsibilities  of  the  position, ' ' 
he,  unlike  Washington,  "accepted  them  without  fear," 
and  the  reflection  cast  upon  the  course  of  his  immediate 
predecessor  by  the  promise  to  execute  all  laws  whether 
meeting  his  approval  or  not,  and  to  have  no  policy  to 
enforce  against  the  will  of  the  people— there  sped 
across  the  country  the  Farewell  Address  of  ex-Presi 
dent  Andrew  Johnson,  vindicating  the  policy  of  his  ad 
ministration  in  terms  of  equal  self-sufficiency,  and  re 
hearsing  "the  catalogue  of  crimes"  of  the  majority  in 
Congress  in  a  style  as  direct  and  unsparing  as  that  in 
which  the  writer  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
denounces  the  usurpations  of  "Great  George,  Our 
King."*  In  short,  after  the  four  years  battle,  if  the 
multitudinous  hosts  of  the  victors  were  at  last  taking 
exclusive  possession  of  the  field,  it  was  no  less  true  that 
the  solitary  vanquished  was  retreating  with  his  face 
to  the  foe,  his  flag  unlowered,  his  shield  unbroken,  pro 
claiming  with  a  far-resounding  voice  his  faith  in  the 
future  triumph  of  his  cause. 

And,  when  viewed  in  the  light  of  subsequent  events, 
it  must  be  admitted  that  is  was  not  the  self-assurance  of 
Grant— regarded  at  the  time  by  some  of  his  worshippers 
as  sublime— but  the  self-assurance  of  Johnson— re 
garded  at  the  time  as  ridiculous  when  not  disregarded 

*  Published  in  pamphlet  and  in  newspapers  of  the  period. 


CONCLUSION  615 

with  contempt— that  rested  upon  solid  grounds.    Won-, 
derful  as  was  the  career  of  Andrew  Johnson  up  to  his]  \y 
accession  to  the  Presidency,  his  exploits  in  the  last  six/ 
years  of  his  life  were  more  wonderful  still.      Hardly 
had  he  struck  the  bottom  of  the  abyss  into  which  his 
descent  from  the  topmost  pinnacle  precipitated  him, 
before  he  began  to  gather  his  scattered  forces  to  begin 
the  slow  and  toilsome  reascent.      Not  a  moment  was 
wTasted  in  supineness,  in  useless  upbraidings  of  fortune, 
in  unavailing  lamentations ;  not  even  an  hour  spared  for 
much  needed  rest.     In  fact,  even  before  the  close  of  his 
presidency  he  had  signified  to  his  friends  in  Tennessee 
his  willingness  to  run  for  governor  at  the  approaching 
election,  with  a  view  of  being  sent  at  once  to  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States.     His  own  state  was  set  all  agog  \ 
by  the  heralded  return  of  her  once  favourite  son,  and 
his  first  footfall  on  her  soil  shook  the  hybrid  tyranny 
that  defiled  her  to  its  very  base. 

The  Republican  state  convention  of  the  twentieth 
of  May,  1869,  broke  up  in  a  fight  between  the  faction 
that  favoured  the  abandonment  of  a  prescriptive  policy 
against  the  whites  and  the  faction  that  still  kept  up  the 
cry  of  "No  quarter  to  rebels!"  and  the  result  was  two 
conventions^  and  two  tickets.  Senter,  the  speaker  of 
the  Senate^  and,  by  virtue  of  that  office,  governor  in  the 
absence  of  BrownTow^  was  the  candidate~of  the  first 
faction ;  and,  strange  to  say,  he  was  favoured  by  Brown- 
low  himself— the  fiercest  foe  of  Johnson— sitting  now 
in  the  recent  seat  of  Johnson's  son-in-law  in  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States.  Col.  William  B.  Stokes  was  the 
candidate  of  the  second.  The  opportunity  afforded  by 


616    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

this  split  the  ex-President  did  not  let  slip.  He  advised 
his  friends  and  the  conservatives  at  large  to  throw  their 
united  force  in  favour  of  the  candidate  who  would  open 
the  avenue  which  led  to  their  normal  supremacy.  As 
for  himself,  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  was  the 
goal  on  which  he  had  fixed  his  eye;  he  longed  for  a 
return  to  that  chamber  which  had  witnessed  his  trial 
for  high  crimes  and  misdemeanours.  Accordingly,  his 
part  in  the  ensuing  canvass  was  to  traverse  the  state, 
endeavour  by  speaking  as  of  yore  to  the  people  to  re 
gain  his  former  position  and  power,  to  help  elect  a  con 
servative  governor  and,  above  all,  to  secure  a  legisla 
ture  hostile  to  the  radicals  and  friendly  to  his  national 
policy  and  to  the  redemption  of  his  fame.  Before  the 
campaign  began,  he  was  prostrated  by  an  attack  of  a 
painful  disease  to  which  he  was  subject.  During  the 
campaign,  he  was  summoned  from  a  speaking  tour  by 
the  untimely  and  sudden  death  of  his  son.  But  nothing 
could  stay  him— neither  life  nor  death,  principalities 
nor  powers.  He  held  right  on  to  the  end.  The  elec 
tion  took  place  in  August,  and  the  triumph  of  the 
whites  was  overwhelming.  Senter  was  elected  gov 
ernor  by  fifty  thousand  majority,  and  the  conservatives 
captured  both  houses  of  the  legislature,  reducing  the 
ultra-radicals  to  a  mere  handful.  As  Tennessee  was 
the  first  of  the  seceding  states  to  undergo  the  yoke  of 
carpet-bag  Africanization,  so  Tennessee  was  the  first 
to  throw  it  off.  The  lower  House  rejected  the  fifteenth 
amendment  by  nays  57  to  yeas  12,  and  the  upper  House 
did  not  deign  to  report  it  for  action.  And  this  sudden 
revolution  was,  to  a  great  extent,  due  to  the  mere  pres- 


CONCLUSION  617 

ence  of  Andrew  Johnson  within  the  borders  of  the 
state.  Immediately  after  the  election,  it  was  taken  for 
granted  all  over  the  country  that  the  ex-President's 
return  to  the  Senate  was  assured,  and  that,  on  the 
fourth  of  March,  1871,  the  defendant  in  the  great  Im 
peachment  Trial,  taking  the  seat  of  the  much-abused 
Fowler,  would  beard  the  judges  who  condemned  him  in 
their  own  chamber. 

But  this  exquisite  piece  of  retributive  justice  was 
not  to  be  accomplished  yet.  Johnson  was  not  to  re 
mount  the  car  that  climbs  the  capitol  by  so  speedy  a 
process.  As  fortune  was  shaping  events,  his  struggle 
for  retrieval  was  but  beginning.  The  peculiar  and 
disheartening  weakness  of  the  ex-President's  present 
position  was  the  same  that  had  pursued  Jiim_during  the_ 
whole  course  of  his  administration ;— he  did  not, 
strictly,  belong  to  either  of  the  parties  into  which  the 
country  was  divided.  His  lifelong  connection  with  the 
Democratic  party,  he  severed  when  its  Southern  wing 
went  over  into  secession.  His  shortlived  connection 
with  the  Republican  party  dissolved  of  itself  when  that 
party  began  to  subordinate  the  restoration  of  the  Union 
to  the  prolongation  of  its  power.  The  consequence 
was  that,  for  the  time  being,  he  hovered  between  the 
two.  The  Democrats  turned  a  cold  shoulder  on  him 
because  of  his  alliance  with  the  Republicans  in  a 
cardinal  moment,  while  the  Republicans  banished  him 
to  what  they  considered  the  congenial  company  of  his 
former  friends.  Neither  could  see  that  while  it  was 
they  that  moved,  it  was  he  that  remained  stationary. 
While  he  was  doing  battle  for  a  Union  such  as  he  was 


618    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

brought  up  to  believe  the  Constitution  made  perpetual, 
his  state  was  overrun  in  the  name  of  the  Congress  by 
enfranchised  negroes  led  by  a  few  whites;  and  this 
dominant  faction,  depending  for  its  very  existence  upon 
the  opponents  of  his  policy  in  the  nation,  could  cherish 
for  him  nothing  less  than  the  most  deadly  animosity. 
During  the  progress  of  the  long  fight,  many  of  his  ad 
herents  of  former  days  were  lured  into  the  camp  of  the 
radicals  by  the  potent  consideration  that  the  radicals 
were  patronized  by  the  party  dominant  in  the  United 
States.  So  that  by  the  time  he  retired  from  the  presi 
dency,  there  were  comparatively  few  Johnson  Republi 
cans  in  all  wide  Tennessee.  This  doleful  prospect,  the 
recent  victory  of  conservative  principles  might  have 
been  expected  to  brighten.  But  that  victory  did  not 
create  a  Johnson  party ;  it  accrued  to  the  benefit  of  the 
Democratic  party;  and  the  Democratic  party  adopted 
the  Johnson  policy  without  altogether  adopting  John 
son.  The  leaders  were  ready  to  applaud  him  for  his 
gallant  stand  while  President  on  the  question  of  recon 
struction,  but  there  were  many  who  could  not  forget, 
even  if  they  could  forgive,  his  desertion  of  his  section 
at  the  outbreak  of  the  war  or  his  iron  rule  as  military 
governor  over  his  prostrate  state. 

The  newly  elected  legislature  met  in  October ;  a  ma 
jority  of  the  members  having  been  chosen  to  elect  John 
son  United  States  senator.  But,  because  of  the  influences 
we  have  just  indicated,  that  majority  was  somewhat 
heterogeneous  and  unreliable.  Of  the  Democrats, 
many  were  lukewarm,  to  say  the  least,  in  the  support 
of  the  old  Unionist.  Among  the  Republicans  who 


CONCLUSION  G19 

shared  in  the  Senter  revolt,  some  yielded  to  the  frantic 
expostulations  of  Brownlow  who  could  brook  the  devil 
for  a  colleague  rather  than  the  "dead  dog  of  the  White 
House."  According  to  the  'Parson's'  own  admission, 
money  was  freely  used  by  himself  and  by  the  party  of 
the  administration  to  elect  any  other  candidate.  They 
made  secret  alliances  with  the  more  inveterate  seces 
sionists.  They  preferred  a  "red-handed  rebel"  to  the 
indomitable  "Andy."  Notwithstanding  these  efforts 
o£~lus  adversaries,  the  genuine  supporters  of  the  ex- 
President  would  have  maintained  their  majority,  had 
it  not  been  for  an  unexpected  defection  among  their 
own  number.  It  was  the  immemorial  custom  to  choose 
the  two  senators  alternately  from  different  sections  of 
the  state,  and  the  choice  of  Johnson  as  the  successor  of 
Fowler  would  throw  both  senators  into  the  eastern 
quarter  Flying  the  wavering  members  with  this  argu- 
ment7  Brownlow,  at  last,  offered  to  throw  the  votes  of 
his  followers  to  Henry  Cooper  who  lived  in  the  middle 
part  of  the  state  and  was  the  brother  of  Edmund 
Cooper — for  a  time,  private  secretary  of  President 
Johnson,  at  this  crisis  a  member  of  the  legislature  and 
one  of  the  stanchest  and  most  influential  of  Johnson's 
supporters.  This  maneuvre  put  an  end  to  the  con 
test;  Edmund  and  his  following  being  won  over  and 
Johnson  defeated  by  one  vote.  The  successful  candi 
date,  although  elected  by  the  help  of  Brownlow,  after 
taking  his  seat  in  the  Senate  adhered  without  wavering 
to  the  opposition  to  President  Grant's  administration. 
The  victory  was  won  over  Johnson  in  person  but  not 
over  Johnson's  policy. 


620   IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

Forced  to  be  content  with  this  one-sided  triumph, 
Johnson  retired  from  the  field  to  await  the  next  op 
portunity  to  achieve  the  object  of  his  ambition.  The 
senatorial  term  of  the  one  man  who  had  done  so  much 
to  deprive  him  of  the  prize  of  the  recent  contest  would 
expire  in  a  few  years,  and  he  bent  his  eye  upon  the 
succession.  During  the  years  that  must  elapse  he  set 
to  work  organizing,  solidifying  and  disciplining  a  party 
behind  him.  Standing  midway  between  the  ex-seces 
sionists  on  the  one  hand  and  the  reunited  radicals  on 
the  other,  he  drew  from  the  former  those  who  could 
bring  themselves  to  forget  the  wounds  of  the  war  in 
order  to  defeat  the  policy  of  the  federal  administration 
and  swing  the  state  into  line  with  the  steadfast  De 
mocracy  of  the  North ;  and  he  drew  from  the  latter  the 
white  men  whom  events  day  by  day  were  convincing 
that  prosperity  would  only  return  with  the  return  of 
the  intelligence,  the  industry  and  the  honesty  of  the 
people  to  the  government  of  the  state.  The  gospel  he 
preached  was  the  necessity  of  securing  the  ascendency 
of  the  whites,  and  the  folly  of  throwing  the  manage 
ment  of  political  affairs  into  the  hands  of  the  extreme 
Democrats ;  a  course  which  could  only  result  in  the 
state  being  forced  back  into  bondage  by  the  federal 
authorities.  The  first  term  of  Grant  drew  near  its 
close;  the  condition  of  the  reconstructed  states  under 
the  treatment  of  his  administration  had  already  dis 
gusted  into  open  revolt  many  of  the  most  high-minded 
members  of  his  party  in  the  North.  Tennessee  having 
been  assigned  another  representative  in  Congress, 
because  of  the  want  of  time  to  reapportion  the  state, 


CONCLUSION  621 

the  additional  member  was  to  be  elected  by  the 
people  at  large  in  1872.  The  Democrats  nomi 
nated  the  ex-confederate  general  Cheatham,  and  the 
Republicans  Horace  Maynard,  for  the  place.  At  the 
call  of  his  friends,  Johnson  consented  to  anticipate 
the  time  he  had  set  for  his  own  rehabilitation,  and  for 
the  sake  of  his  middle  party  to  shift  his  aim  from  the 
more  striking  triumph  of  a  reentrance  to  the  Senate  to 
a  seat  in  the  House  as  the  representative  of  the  entire 
state.  The  campaign  was  bitterly  fought,  The  three 
candidates  appealed  personally  to  the  people ;  John 
son,  the  common  mark  of  the  other  two  on  the  right 
hand  and  on  the  left.  Again,  his  course  at  the  out 
break  and  during  the  war  served  to  draw  from  his  sup 
port  the  old-time  Democrats,  while  its  singular  heroism 
was  lost  upon  the  radicals  who  applauded  it  so  loudly 
at  the  time.  "Traitor  to  his  state  and  tyrant  to  his 
race"  were  the  charges  flung  at  him  from  one  quarter— 
1 '  Apostate  from  his  party  and  ally  of  Jefferson  Davis, ' ' 
from  the  other.  Again,  the  Republican  being  elected, 
he  suffered  defeat,  but  only  to  fall  back  upon  his  orig 
inal  plan— the  goal  of  which  was  the  United  States 
Senate. 

From  that  time  all  his  energies  were  strained  to  gain 
for  himself  a  faithful  majority  in  the  legislature  which 
was  to  elect  the  successor  of  Brownlow.  The  task 
seemed  hopeless  to  every  one  but  himself.  The  con 
test  of  1872— both  presidential  and  state— had  resulted 
in  throwing  Tennessee  back  into  the  hands  of  the  federal 
administration  and  reuniting  the  radicals  for  the  shar 
ing  of  the  spoils.  The  Democratic  opposition  waxed 


622    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

more  bitter;  the  heart-burnings  of  the  war  rekindled 
and  to  the  more  inveterate  secessionists  Johnson  grew 
more  and  more  distasteful.  At  the  beginning  of  the 
campaign  of  1874,  however,  a  reaction  had  set  in  so 
powerful  that  the  Republicans,  despairing  of  electing 
a  senator  of  their  own  party,  were  reduced  to  the  ex 
pedient  of  making  coalitions  with  the  Johnson  men 
in  most  of  the  counties  and  senatorial  districts.  The 
contest  before  the  people,  therefore,  was  narrowed 
down  to  one  between  Andrew  Johnson,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  only  other  prominent  avowed  candidates— 
William  B.  Bate  (the  present  U.  S.  senator)  and  John 
C.  Brown,  both  democrats,  on  the  other.  When  the 
legislature  met  in  joint-meeting  (January  20,  1875) 
Brownlow,  who  the  day  before  in  the  House  had  but 
two  votes,  and  Hawkins,  who  had  but  one— these  two 
being  the  only  Republican  candidates— got  none;  so 
that  the  struggle  continued  before  the  legislature,  as  it 
had  raged  in  the  campaign,  between  Johnson  and  the 
Democrats  proper.  The  first  ballot  stood  Johnson  36, 
Bate  19,  Brown  18,  and  others  scattering— necessary 
to  a  choice  51.  The  balloting  continued  every  day, 
until  the  twenty-sixth,  with  varying  fortunes.  The 
thirty-fourth  ballot  stood  Johnson  34,  Brown  32,  Bate 
10,  when  Brown  was  withdrawn ;  and,  on  the  next  ballot, 
the  vote  stood  Johnson  33,  Bate  24,  Stephens  21,  others 
scattering.  On  the  last  ballot  taken  on  the  twenty-fifth, 
the  vote  stood  Bate  46,  Johnson  44,  Ewing  8,  Sneed 
1 ;  when  Brown  was  again  put  in  nomination  and  Bate 
withdrawn.  The  next  day,  Brown  having  declined,  the 
final  and  fifty-fifth  ballot  stood  Johnson  52,  Stephens 


CONCLUSION  623 

25,  others  scattering ;  and  Johnson  was  declared  elected. 
A    harder-won,    better-deserved    and    more    signal 
triumph  does  not  adorn  the  annals  of  time.      As  was 
truly  said  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate,  after  his  death : 

''His  last  election  to  a  seat  on  this  floor  as  Senator  was 
the  work  of  his  own  hands,  brought  about  by  his  own  in 
domitable  will  and  pluck,  the  reward  of  a  long  and  terrible 
contest,  continuing  for  seven  years,  unsuccessful  for  a  time, 
and  appearing  to  all  the  world  beside  himself  as  utterly 
hopeless;  nevertheless,  finally,  he  was  triumphant.  From 
what  I  have  learned  from  those  who  are  familiar  with  this, 
his  last  contest,  he  exhibited  more  openly  his  true  and 
peculiar  nature,  than  at  any  other  period  of  his  life— 
which  was  to  fight  with  all  his  might  and  all  his  ability, 
asking  no  quarter,  and  granting  nonej  and  although  like 
bloody  Richard  now  and  then  unhorsed,  still  to  fight  and 
never  surrender,  until  victory  perched  upon  his  banner."* 

On  Thursday,  the  fourth  day  of  March,  1875,  just  six 
years  from  the  day  when,  as  retiring  President,  he  was 
conspicuous  by  his  absence  from  the  side  of  the  Presi 
dent-elect: — Andrew  Johnson  reappeared  on  the  floor  of 
the  Senate  and  was  greeted  by  a  spontaneous  outburst 
of  applause  from  the  crowds  assembled  in  gallery  and 
corridor  to  do  him  honour.  The  next  day,  when  the 
Seriate  organized  in  special  session,  at  the  call  of  his 
name,  his  sturdy  figure,  clad  in'  old-fashioned  black, 
marches  dow*n  the  aisle  to  take  the  oath.  Efe  stands  be 
fore  that  desk  where  once  was  read  the  foul' telegram  of 
Browniow,  whom  he  has  now  pushed  from  his  stool.  He 

*  Speech  of  sen.  Bogy  at  obsequies  of  Johnson.  Globe,  1st  Sess. 
44th  Cong.,  p.  340. 


624    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

looks  into  the  uneasy  eye  of  Henry  Wilson,  who  once 
pronounced  him  "a  violator  of  the  Constitution,  a 
violator  of  the  laws,  and  a  violator  of  his  oath/'  and 
expressed  a  desire  to  disqualify  him  from  office  forever; 
but  who  now  as  Vice  President  is  constrained  to  tender 
him  the  book.  Sumner — once  so  fond  of  calling  him  "a 
wicked  man " ;  "  an  enemy  to  his  country  " ;  "  the  lineal 
successor  of  Jefferson  Davis"  —is  gone.  But  Boutwell, 
who  discovered  the  "hole  in  the  sky"  into  which  "to 
project  this  enemy  of  two  races  of  men ' '  sits  there  in  the 
place  of  Wilson,  meditating,  perhaps,  on  that  "mys 
terious  Providence"  which  so  fatefully  arranged  the 
figures  in  Carpenter's  painting.  As  the  new  senator 
goes  back  to  his  desk  which  his  admirers  have  covered 
with  flowers,  his  colleagues  flock  around  him  with  con 
gratulations—even  senators  who  had  voted  him  guilty. 
Egotistic,  as  it  was  so  often  said  he  was,  he  wears  his 
hard-won  laurels  with  the  utmost  modesty.  He  seems  to 
have  harboured  no  grudges.  Said  Morton :  * t  After  I 
had  voted  for  his  impeachment,  and  met  him  acci 
dentally,  he  wore  the  same  kindly  smile  as  in  times  be 
fore  and  offered  me  his  hand.  I  thought  that  showed 
nobility  of  soul.  There  were  not  many  men  who  could 
have  done  that!"  But,  although  all  display  of  his 
emotions  was  suppressed,  there  can  be  no  doubt  but,  as 
another  senator  said :  ' '  That  was  a  grand  occasion  for 
him  and  his  heart  was  glad. "  "  This  last  triumph  must 
have  given  him  more  sincere  and  deeply  felt  gratifica 
tion  than  any  other  of  his  life."  The  first  ex-President 

*  Globe.,  1st  Sess.  44th  Cong.,  p.  338. 


CONCLUSION  625 

of  the  United  States  who  ever  became  a  senator,  Andrew 
Johnson  is  also  the  last. 

But  great  as  was  his  personal  triumph,  the  triumph  of 
his  policy  was  still  more  significant.  Six  years  of  con 
gressional  reconstruction  proved  enough  to  bedim  even 
the  glory  of  the  hero  of  Appomattox.  The  House  of 
Representatives  that  once  impeached  Andrew  Johnson 
by  so  overwhelming  a  majority  is  now  in  the  hands  of 
the  Democrats.  The  two-thirds  majority  in  the  Senate, 
notwithstanding  the  reinforcements  from  ten  dragooned 
states,  has  dwindled  away.  One  by  one,  the  Africanized 
rotten  boroughs,  despite  the  support  of  the  federal  ad 
ministration  and  the  United  States  army,  have  fallen  or 
are  falling.  Soon  no  relic  will  remain  of  that  hybrid 
empire,  except  South  Carolina  wallowing  in  the  black 
mire  of  anarchy  and  corruption ;  Louisiana  writhing  in 
the  forced  embrace  of  a  Kellogg;  and  a  stray  negro 
illustrating  the  equality  of  men  by  misrepresenting  his 
state  in  the  Senate  or  his  district  in  the  House;  and 
these  unhealthy  survivals,  even  the  colossal  fraud  of  1876 
cannot  keep  alive.  Everywhere  throughout  that  region, 
the  so-called  "rebel  element"  is  in  the  ascendent— and 
in  the  ascendent,  too,  by  the  connivance,  if  not  by  the  in 
vitation,  of  its  original  denouncers,  themselves  appalled 
by  the  intolerable  miseries  their  own  plan  has  entailed. 
Every  measure  forced  through  with  all  the  violence  of 
revolution  to  make  sure  the  supremacy  of  the  Repub 
lican  party  in  the  restored  Union— the  fourteenth 
amendment,  the  reconstruction  acts  with  their  martial 
law,  their  negro  conventions,  their  negro  elections  and 
their  negro  constitutions— have  proved  worse  than 
40 


626    IMPEACHMENT  OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

fruitless.  To  the  much  abused  policy  of  Andrew  John 
son,  his  adversaries  are  driven  to  come  round  at  last. 
Nought  remains  of  congressional  reconstruction  but  un 
qualified  negro  suffrage,  and  that  surviving  achieve 
ment  is  more  and  more  distinctly  recognized  as  a  curse 
to  both  races,  as  a  stumbling  block  to  good  government 
and  a  deadly  taint  to  the  social  order,  which  even  the 
fifteenth  amendment  should  be  suffered  no  longer  to  per 
petuate. 

The  special  session  was  devoted  to  the  consideration 
of  the  deplorable  situation  of  public  affairs  in  Louisiana 
and  to  the  question  of  the  admission,  as  one  of  her  sena 
tors,  of  a  mulatto  rejoicing  in  the  high-sounding  name 
of  Pinckney  Benton  Stewart  Pinchback.  On  Monday, 
the  twenty-second  day  of  March,  Andrew  Johnson 
addressed  the  Senate.  Great  was  the  curiosity  to  hear 
the  once-impeached  President,  before  a  tribunal  many 
of  whose  members  had  pronounced  him  guilty  of  high 
crimes  and  misdemeanours,  impeach,  in  his  turn,  the 
conduct  of  his  successor.  Once  again,  as  in  1861, 
Andrew  Johnson  of  Tennessee  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate 
was  the  hero  of  the  hour.  These  were  his  opening 
words : 

"Mr.  President,  notwithstanding:  I  have  been  in  the  habit 
of  speaking  in  public  for  a  number  of  years,  sometimes  in 
deliberative  bodies  and  sometimes  before  the  people,  I 
confess  that  I  appear,  before  the  Senate  this  morning  under 
great  embarrassment.  I  fear  that  the  fact  of  my  having 
obtained  the  floor  on  Saturday  night  and  notice  having 
been  given  that  I  would  address  the  Senate  to-day  may 
have  created  an  expectation  with  some  that  cannot  be 


CONCLUSION  627 

realized,  and  especially  so  with  those  who  are  not  ac 
quainted  with  me.  If  any  such  expectation  has  been  cre 
ated  in  the  minds  of  any  of  those  here  present,  I  trust 
and  hope  that  they  will  let  themselves  down,  for  they  will 
be  greatly  disappointed  on  this  occasion." 

The  same  peculiarities  of  style  and  diction,  the  same 
traits  of  character,  the  same  habit  of  keeping* the  people 
ever  in  his  eye,  that  marked  the  first,  mark  this  his  last 
speech  in  the  Senate.  His  personal  ^self-sufficiency,  his 
unbounded  confidence  in  the  rectitude  of  his  public  acts, 
the  steady  fire  of  his  combatiYeness,  and  the  determina 
tion  to^yield  not  an  inch  to  opponents  or  betrayers — are 
all  there.  He  handled  the  conduct  of  the  Grant  adminis 
tration  without  gloves.  Not  without  a  suspicion  of  mis 
chievous  irony,  he  went  so  far  as  to  maintain  that  the 
present  President  had  the  less  excuse  for  his  high 
handed  treatment  of  the  Louisiana  legislature  because 
as  general  of  the  army  under  President  Johnson  he 
had  before  him  a  bright  precedent  in  the  refusal  of  that 
administration  to  aid  governor  Brownlow  in  dragoon 
ing  the  legislature  of  Tennessee.  He  struck  directly  at 
the  two  vulnerable  spots  in  the  President's  armour;— 
his  ambition  for  a  third  term  and  his  frequent  ac 
ceptance  of  gifts ;  in  condemnation  of  the  latter  narrat 
ing  in  full  the  ignominious  punishment  Sir  John 
Trevor,  speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons,  was  forced 
to  inflict  upon  himself  ' '  for  receiving  a  gratuity  of  one 
thousand  guineas  from  the  City  of  London."  He  once 
again  employed  his  favourite  quotation:  "Upon  what 
meat  does  our  Caesar  feed  that  he  has  grown  so  great?" 
He  warned  his  countrymen  against  the  advent  of 


628  IMPEACHMENT   OF  PRESIDENT  JOHNSON 

'  '  Stratocracy, ' '  a  word,  the  etymology  of  which  he  char 
acteristically  is  careful  to  give,  and  he  wound  up  his 
speech  by  a  studied  exposition  of  the  distinctive  features 
of  that  form  of  government  and  the  signs  of  its  ap 
proach.* 

On  the  next  day  but  one,  the  Senate  adjourned 
sine  die  and  Andrew  Johnson  wTent  home.  If  not  with 
the  northern  section  of  his  country  nor  altogether  with 
his  contemporaries  in  his  own,  with  posterity  he  had 
vindicated  his  character  both  public  and  private.  For 
him  a  new  day  seemed  to  have  dawned.  Before  him  a 
second  senatorial  career  opened  as  glorious  as  the  first. 
He  was  in  the  sixty-seventh  year  of  his  age,  but,  despite 
repeated  attacks  of  a  painful  disorder  which  clung 
about  him,  time  seemed  to  have  dealt  mercifully 
with  him.  His  step  was  vigorous,  his  eye  bright,  his 
form  erect,  his  spirits  high.  But  all  these  symptoms 
were  fallacious.  In  reality,  his  work  was  done.  His  re 
turn  to  the  Senate,  as  it  constituted  the  unique  triumph 
of  his  career,  was  to  be  its  last.  He  spent  the 
spring  and  early  summer  at  his  home  in  Greenville  in 
quiet.  In  the  last  days  of  July,  he  started  on  a  visit  to 
a  daughter  then  living  a  few  miles  away,  apparently 
in  the  best  of  Health.  There,  on  the  twenty-ninth, 
he  was  stricken  with  paralysis,  and  after  linger 
ing  in  a  state  of  semi-unconsciousness  until  the  thirty- 
first,  on  that  day  he  died.  As  befitted  his  character  and 
career,  his  funeral  was  plain  and  unostentatious— with- 
out  ecclesiastical  ceremonial  or  the  pageantry  of  woe; 
but,  as  was  said  by  one  of  his  fellow-senators,  "the  hills 

*  (Hole,  special  session  of  Senate,  March,  1875,  p.  121. 


CONCLUSION  629 

and  the  valleys  and  the  mountains  and  the  rivers  sent  \ 
forth  their  thousands  to  testify  to  the  general  grief  at  \ 
the  irreparable  loss."    From  his  modest  brick  dwelling 
standing  flush  with  the  street,  his  remains  were  first 
borne  to  the  court  house,  where,  wrapped  in  the  flag  of 
the  Union,  they  lay  two  days  in  state;  and  thence  to  the 
summit  of  a  conical  hill  just  south  of  the  village — the 
place  selected  by  himself  for  his  burial.    A  tall,  grace 
ful  shaft  of  white  granite,  erected  by  the  pious  efforts  of 
his  most  devoted  daughter  and  visible  for  miles  around, 
now  marks  the  spot— on  its  top  an  eagle  in  act  to  swoop, 
near    its    base    the    inscription:      "Andrew    Johnson, 
seventeenth  President  of  the  United  States.    His  faith  in 
the  people  never  wavered. ' '  In  the  distance,  a  grand  out 
lying  mountain-block,  its  hither  side  carved  as  it  were 
in   undulating  folds   of  purple,   keeps   its   everlasting 
watch.     There,  surrounded  by  his  kindred  dead,  after\ 
his  lifelong  battle,  rests,  at  last,  the  stubbornest  fighter  i 
in  civil  affairs  among  the  self-made  champions  of  the 
modern  democracy. 

END. 


INDEX 


Alabama,  18  ;  bill  to  admit  reported  to 

House,  521. 
Alta    Vela    matter,    history   of,   397 ; 

Nelson's  explanation  of,  470. 
Amendment,  Fourteenth,  first  form  re 
ported,  44 ;  passed  House,  45 ;  de 
feated  in  Senate,  00  ;  second  form 
reported,  91,  92  ;  amended  in 
Senate,  94  ;  adopted  by  Senate, 
95  ;  by  House,  97  ;  ratified  by 
Conn,  and  N.  H.  id.;  by  Tenn., 
99. 

Fifteenth,  GOO. 

Anthony,  Henry  B.,  senator  from 
Rhode  Island,  favors  Stockton's 
title,  73 ;  inquires  as  to  intent  of 
Nelson,  487  ;  his  intimacy  with 
Chase,  51(3 ;  reported  sound,  522  ;  his 
vote  of  "Guilty,"  551. 
Arkansas,  3,  10;  bill  to  admit  reported, 
518 ;  senate  refuses  to  take  it  up,  563. 
Army  Appropriation  Bill,  section 
added  to,  depriving  President  of 
functions  as  coramander-in-chief, 
201 ;  protest  of  President,  202 ;  his 
tory  of,  202  n. 

Ashley,  James  M.,  rep.  from  Ohio, 
offers  impeachment  resolution,  152; 
his  connection  with  Conover  ;  his  be 
lief  in  complicity  of  A.  J.  in  murder 
of  Lincoln,  147,  154 ;  his  connection 
with  Baker,  155  ;  remarks  in  favor 
of  continuing  impeachment,  210 ; 
brings  Baker  to  com.  234;  recom 
mends  Conover's  pardon,  279 ;  com 
munications  with  him,  281 ;  last  ex 
amination  before  Imp.  Com.  291  et 
s?q.;  his  theory  as  to  the  assassina 


tion,  292  ;  remarks  in  debate  on  final 
impeachment,  361. 

"Assassination    Committee,"     House 
appoints.  237. 

Baker,  LaFayette  C.,  his  testimony  be 
fore  Imp.  Inv.  committee  in  re 
Adamson  letter,  155-6  ;  also  as  to 
Mrs.  Harris,  and  Booth's  diary,  234  ; 
does  not  appear  and  House  issues 
warrant  for,  238;  re-examined,  290. 
Binckley,  John  M.,  his  report  on  Con- 
over's  pardon  as  acting  A  t ty . -Gen . ,  278 
Bingham,  John  A.,  rep.  from  Ohio,  at 
tack  on  Raymond,  41 ;  tilt  with  But 
ler,  213 ;  remarks  on  final  impeach 
ment,  360,  369 ;  appointed  on  com 
mittee  to  notify  Senate,  374  ;  remarks 
on  the  notion  that  Johnson  was  not 
President,  380 ;  selected  as  one  of  the 
managers,  385 ;  reports  article  XI, 
386 ;  counter-signs  Butler's  Alta 
Vela  letter,  399  ;  protests  against  de 
lay,  401 ;  argument  on  proviso  of 
Tenure  Act,  449,  451 ;  makes  closing 
argument,  505  ;  style  of  speaker,  506 ; 
peroration,  512-3 ;  remarks  on  right 
of  House  to  investigate  senators,  564 ; 
at  Chicago  convention,  571. 
Black,  Jeremiah  S.,  writes  veto  mes 
sage  on  reconstruction  act,  203 ;  char 
acter  of  as  a  writer,  204 ;  relations 
with  Stanton,  244,  247-8-9 ;  relation 
of  Stanton  to  Buchanan's  Ad.,  252; 
to  Lincoln's,  264 ;  named  as  one  of 
the  counsel  of  the  President,  396; 
withdraws,  397  ;  hypothetical  de 
nouncement  of  Stanton,  595. 


631 


632 


INDEX 


Elaine,  James  G.,  rep.  from  Maine,  re 
marks  on  Nebraska  proviso,  166 ; 
opposes  impeachment,  217  ;  tilt  with 
Stevens,  217-8  ;  counter-signs  But 
ler's  Alta  Vela  letter,  399. 

Blair,  Montgomery,  letter  of  Johnson 
to,  9. 

Bogy,  Lewis  V.,  sen.  from  Mo.,  remark 
at  obsequies  of  Johnson,  623. 

Bout-well,  George  S.,  rep.  from  Mass., 
leads  negro-suffragists  in  House,  42 ; 
remarks  of,  on  Dist.  Col.  suffrage  bill, 
43  ;  pursues  Jeff.  Davis  on  charge  of 
complicity  in  Lincoln's  assassina 
tion,  138;  prepares  report  on,  141  ; 
his  investigation  on  delay  of  Sur- 
ratt's  arrest,  his  report  thereon,  143-6; 
moves  final  amendment  to  Nebraska 
and  Colorado  bills,  167 ;  writes  sec 
tion  to  army  bill,  202  n.;  remarks  of, 
on  veto  message  on  second  supple 
mentary  act,  227 ;  what  he  would 
have  done  with  Jeff.  Davis,  232 ; 
Stanley  Matthews  testimony,  effect 
of,  on,  236 ;  interrogates  Grant,  238 
and  n  ;  extracts  from  speech  of,  on 
first  impeachment,  296  ;  on  Johnson's 
remark  concerning  Dem.  party,  301 ; 
on  his  ability,  303 ;  prophecy  of, 
312 ;  remark  of,  on  second  impeach 
ment,  335  ;  remarks  of,  on  final  im 
peachment,  360,  362,  368  ;  that  John 
son  is  only  Vice  President,  380 ; 
selected  manager,  385  ;  his  argument 
on  the  question  whether  Stanton  was 
within  the  Tenure  act,  448, 451 ;  opens 
the  final  arguments,  457  ;  analysis  of 
his,  458-467  ;  his  allusion  to  Carpen 
ter's  painting,  461 ;  his  invective 
against  the  President,  465  ;  the  hole 
in  the  sky,  467;  U.  S.  senator, 
624. 

Bradley,  Joseph  P.,  counsel  for  Sur- 
ratt,  his  statement  as  to  petition  for 
mercy,  274. 


Brooks,  James,  rep.  from  N.  Y.,  calls 
for  last  letter  of  Johnson  in  corre 
spondence  with  Grant,  332  ;  remarks 
of,  on  final  impeachment,  370. 

Brownlow,  "  Parson,"  gov.  of  Tenn., 
letter  of,  to  Speaker,  44 ;  character 
and  career,  97-8 :  forces  ratification 
of  14th  Amd.,  98-9  ;  his  telegram  to 
Forney,  100  ;  succeeds  Patterson,  615; 
uses  money  to  defeat  Johnson,  619  : 
Johnson  succeeds  him,  623. 

Browning,  Orville  H.,  Sec.  of  Interior, 
108;  letter  corroboratory  of  President 
vs.  Grant,  334. 

Buckalew,  Charles  R.,  sen.  from  Penn., 
argument  on  tenure-of-oflice  bill, 
187-9 ;  argues  that  power  to  call 
Congress  together  is  with  President, 
221 ;  rebukes  Sunnier  for  abusing 
President,  230  ;  remarks  on  Johnson- 
Grant  correspondence,  338 ;  criticism 
of  article  XI,  388 ;  makes  report  of 
committee  to  investigate  senators, 
571. 

Burleigh,  Walter  A.,  Dakota  delegate, 
pumps  Thomas,  350  ;  witness  on  trial, 
417. 

Butler,  Benjamin  F.,  in  convention  of 
private  soldiers,  128  ;  believes  in  the 
complicity  of  Johnson  in  murder  of 
Lincoln,  147 ;  personal  appearance 
and  character  of,  208  ;  remarks  of,  on 
impeachment,  211 ;  quarrel  with 
Bingham,  213-4 ;  remarks  of,  on 
Mrs.  Surratt  and  Booth's  diary,  215- 
6;  objects  to  adjournment,  217  ;  dis 
covers  pardon  of  deserters,  222  ;  re 
marks  of,  on  impeachment,  228 ; 
chairman  of  "assassination  com.," 
237  ;  remarks  of  on  final  impeach 
ment,  362  ;  on  articles,  378 ;  on  his 
own  article,  384 ;  selected  manager, 
385  ;  ludicrous  incident  on  trial,  395; 
remarks  of,  on  delay,  396 ;  his  letter 
on  Alta  Vela,  398 ;  opens  trial,  404  : 


INDEX 


633 


argument  of,  408-416;  contrasted 
with  Curtis's,  422 ;  protests  against 
delay,  442  ;  falls  foul  of  Nelson  about 
Alta  Vela,  486 ;  his  telegram  to  N. 
H.  Rep.  Conv.,  515;  panic  of,  521; 
his  manager's  report,  571. 

Cameron,  Simon,  sen.  from  Penn.,  his 
statement  concerning  Stanton,  2^4- 
5;  his  eagerness  to  vote  "  Guilty," 
551. 

Campaign  of  1866,  real  issue  of,  109 ; 

falsified,  110 ;  result  of,  132-3. 
of  1867,  result  of,  288. 
of  1868,  result  of,  603. 

Carpenter,  Matthew  II., sen.  from  Mich, 
in  41st  Cong.,  efforts  of  to  procure  for 
Stanton  his  appointment  to  Supreme 
Court,  593 ;  his  hypothetical  de 
nouncement  of,  595. 

Chandler,  Zach.,  sen.  from  Mich., 
meets  Stanton,  265 ;  his  form  of  reso 
lution  condemning  removal  of  Stan- 
ton,  348 ;  relates  conversation  with 
Stanton,  593. 

Chase,  Salmon  P.,  chief  justice,  before 
Imp.  com.,  233 ;  his  opinion  that 
Senate  on  trial  of  impeachments  is  a 
court  disregarded,  389 ;  President  at 
tends  his  reception,  id.;  takes  chair 
and  oath  on  trial,  390 ;  adverse  rul 
ings,  390,  391,  393  ;  his  right  to  de 
cide  questions  of  evidence  in  first 
instance  affirmed,  also  his  right  to 
vote  in  case  of  tie,  417  ;  overruled  by 
Senate,  418,  419,  440,  442,  445,  446; 
reads  views  on  article  XI,  518 ;  his 
dinner  incident  magnified,  524 ;  de 
cides  motion  to  adjourn  while  voting 
on  articles  out  of  order  and  is  over 
ruled,  554;  same  on  motion  to  re 
scind,  575. 

Civil  Rights  Bill,  introduced  in  Senate, 
42  ;  passes  Senate  and  House,  60 ; 
veto  of,  80  ;  passed  over  veto,  82-83 ; 


an  epoch  in  our  constitutional  his 
tory,  84-86. 

Clark,  Daniel,  sen.  from  N.  H.,  leads 
in   the  ejection  of  Stockton,  66,  67, 
70,  76-78. 
!    Clark,  Horace  F.,  bail  for  Jeff.  Davis, 

233. 

Churchill,  John  C.,  rep.  from  N.  Y., 
changes  his  vote  on  Imp.  com.,  290. 
Colfax,  Schuyler,  consults  with  Stan- 
ton,  15 ;  votes  on  overriding  veto  of 
Civil  Rights  Bill,  83 ;  for  impeach 
ment,  373  ;  nominee  for  Vice  Presi 
dent,  present  at  last  voting  of  court 
of  impeachment,  576. 
Colorado,  territory  of,  votes  on  reject 
ing  and  adopting  constitution,  65 ; 
bill  to  admit  introduced  in  Senate, 
65 ;  defeated,  65-6  ;  revived  by  Wil 
son,  89  ;  passed,  90 ;  passed  House, 
id.;  letter  and  interviews  of  senators- 
elect,  91 ;  vetoed,  id.;  Wade  intro 
duces  fresh  bill,  158 ;  passes  Senate 
with  proviso,  164  ;  House  rejects  pro 
viso,  166;  Boutwell's  amendment 
adopted  and  bill  passes  both  Houses, 
167-9 ;  veto  message  exposes  change 
in  phraseology,  171 ;  bill  laid  aside, 
173;  called  up,  id.:  caucus  on,  178; 
final  attempt  to  pass  foiled,  179. 
Conkling,  Roscoe,  succeeds  Harris  as 
sen.  from  N.  Y.,  207;  has  the  word 
"  court  "  stricken  out  of  the  rules  for 
trial  of  impeachment,  377 ;  his  silent 
course  on  trial,  532. 

!  Congress,  the  thirty-ninth,  number  of 
members,  22 ;  counter-plan  of  re 
construction  of,  27  ;  short  session, 
135 ;  designs  of  majority,  135-6 ; 
bill  fixing  meetings  on  March 
4th,  149  ;  loth  to  die,  207. 
the  fortieth,  personnel  of,  207 ; 
passes  supplementary  reconstruc 
tion  act,  212 ;  July  meeting,  225  ; 
reverses  Atty-Gen.,  225 ;  adjourns 


634 


INDEX 


to  Sept.,  597  ;  adjourns  until  after 
Oct.  election  and  then  after  pres 
idential,  602. 

Conness,  John,  sen.  from  Cal.,  resents 
idea  that  Stanton  seeks  protection 
under  tenure  bill,  192 ;  interrupts 
reading  of  last  message  of  President, 
604. 

Conover,   Sanford    (alias    Charles    A. 
Dunham),   professional    witness    on 
trial  of  assassins,  138 ;  suborns  wit 
nesses  who  swear  he  fabricated  their 
depositions,  138-9 ;   disappears,  139  ; 
arrested,  tried  for  perjury,  convicted 
and  sentenced,  142 ;  applies  for  par 
don,  154,  155 ;  his  two  petitions  for 
pardon,  278-281 ;  pardoned,  id.  n. 
Convention,  National  Union  at  Phila., 
call  for,  99 ;  meets,  111-12 ;  com 
mittee  of,  waits  on  President,  112. 
"  Jack  Hamilton,"  126. 
Cleveland,  "  soldiers  and  sailors," 

127. 

Butler's,  128. 

Republican     National     of     1868, 
called,  315 ;    meets,  571 ;    action 
against  President  and  recusant    i 
senators,  572. 

Democratic  (1868),  in  New  York,    i 
July  4th,  600;   nominates  Sey-   ! 
mour  and  Blair,  602. 
Cooper,  Edmund,  rep.  in  Cong,  from 
Tenn.  and  private  secretary  of  Presi 
dent,  negotiates  with  Colorado  sena 
tors-elect,  90-91 ;  elects  his  brother  as 
against  Johnson,  IT.  S.  sen.,  619. 
Cooper,  Henry,  defeats  Johnson  for  U.   i 

S.  sen.,  619. 
Couch,    Major-General,    heads    Mass. 

delegation  in  Phila.  Conv.,  112. 
Covode,   John,   rep.   from    Pa.,   men 
tioned,  267 ;  introduces  impeachment   ' 
resolution,  346. 

Cowan,  Edgar,  sen.  from  Pa.,  23,  38 ;   ! 
votes  to  sustain  veto  of  Fr.  Bur.  bill,    ( 


49;  remark  of,  on  "Central  Direct 
ory,"  58;  mentioned,  63;  presents 
protest  in  Stockton's  case,  66 ;  re 
mark  of,  on  Brownlow's  telegram, 
100 ;  reports  resolutions  of  Phila. 
Conv.,  112  ;  denies  report  of  his  ap 
pointment  as  Sec.  of  War,  192. 

Cox,  Samuel  S.,  visits  Henderson  and 
writes  telegram,  528. 

Cox,  Walter  S.,  employed  to  defend 
Lorenzo  Thomas,  376 ;  witness  on 
trial  of  President,  441. 

Curtis,  Benj.  R.,  President's  counsel, 
395 ;  reads  answer  to  first  article, 
400;  contrasted  with  Butler,  422; 
opening  of,  for  defence,  424-438. 

Davis,  Garrett,  sen.  from  Ky.,  startling 
proposition  of,  57. 

Davis,  Henry  Winter,  24 ;  obsequies  of 
in  House,  50. 

Davis,  Jefferson,  captured,  136-7 ;  in 
dicted  for  treason  and  charged  with 
complicity  in  assassination,  137; 
found  guilty  by  the  military  com 
mission,  id.;  depositions  against 
falsified,  138-9 ;  Boutwell  keeps  him 
in  prison,  140 ;  bailed,  232-3  ;  trial  of 
postponed,  407. 

Dawes,  Henry  L.,  rep.  from  Mass., 
consults  privately  with  Stanton,  15 ; 
remark  on  Nebraska  bill,  166;  tes 
timony  concerning  Stanton,  249,  255. 

Dennison,  William,  Postmaster-Gene 
ral,  16 ;  addresses  meeting  in  N.  Y. 
on  Feb.  22d,  50  ;  doubtful  about  Con 
gress'  reconstruction  plan,  94;  re 
signs,  99,  108. 

District  of  Columbia,  bill  conferring 
suffrage  on  negroes  in  passes  House, 
and  laid  aside  in  Senate,  43  ;  called 
up  and  passed,  150  ;  vetoed  and  passed 
over  veto,  150,  152. 

Dix,  Gen.  John  A.,  temporary  presi 
dent  of  Phila.  Conv.,  112. 


INDEX 


635 


Dixon,  James,  sen.  from  Conn.,  23  : 
remark  of  on  Pres.  message,  31 ;  votes 
in  favor  of  F.  Bur.  and  civil  rights 
bills,  43 ;  interview  of  with  Presi 
dent,  45 ;  votes  to  sustain  veto  of  Fr. 
Bur.,  49 ;  mentioned,  63 ;  absent  be 
cause  of  illness  in  Stockton's  case, 
77-8 ;  also  on  vote  overriding  veto  of 
civil  rights  bill,  81  ;  remark  of,  on 
plan  of  joint  committee,  93;  remarks 
of  on  right  of  Arkansas  senators  to  sit 
in  court  of  impeachment,  562. 

Doolittle,  James  R.,  sen.  from  Wis., 
23  ;  votes  for  Fr.  Bur.  and  civil  rights 
bills,  43 ;  votes  to  sustain  veto,  49 ; 
mentioned,  63  ;  permanent  chairman 
of  Phila.  Conv.,  112;  remarks  of  on 
Colorado  bill,  165 ;  expostulates 
against  taking  it  up,  178 ;  on  tenure 
bill  proviso,  197;  on  committee  to 
which  Stanton's  suspension  is  re 
ferred,  315. 

Drake,  Charles  D.,  sen.  from  Mo.,  pro 
poses  resolution  censuring  President, 
311 ;  challenges  right  of  Chief  Justice 
to  rule  on  questions  of  evidence,  417. 

Dunham,  Charles  A.,  see  Conover 
(Sanford). 

Edmunds,  George  F.,  succeeds  Foot  as 
sen.  from  Vt.,  80;  votes  to  override 
veto  of  civil  rights  bill,  82  ;  votes 
against  Colorado,  90;  proviso  of  to 
Nebraska  and  Colorado  bills,  164 ; 
opposes  Boutwell's  amendment,  168; 
votes  to  sustain  Colorado  veto,  179 ; 
remarks  of  on  tenure-of-ofnce  bill, 
184,  189,  190;  argues  that  power  to 
call  Congress  together  lies  exclusively 
in  President,  221 ;  offers  resolution 
on  rules  of  impeachment,  321 ;  moves 
resolution  disapproving  Stanton's  re 
moval,  348 ;  reported  to  be  for  first 
article,  520;  moves  to  proceed  to 
judgment,  550. 


Emory,  Gen.  W.  H.,  interview  with 
President,  357,  359;  sworn  on  trial, 
418. 

Evarts,  William  M.,  counsel  for  U.  S. 
in  case  against  Davis,  233 ;  before 
Imp.  Com.,  id.;  counsel  for  president 
on  trial,  396 ;  reads  answer  to  articles 
X.  and  XI.,  401 ;  replies  to  Butler, 
443 ;  his  argument  on  the  proviso  of 
tenure  act,  451 ;  on  the  designation  of 
Thomas,  454-6  ;  character  and  career 
of,  488  ;  his  argument,  analysis  of, 
489  et  seq.;  extracts:  what  has  the 
President  done  ?  490 ;  old  lady's  total 
depravity,  id. ;  is  this  a  court?  491 ; 
Chinese  method  of  discussion,  492  ;  all 
political,  493-4;  Boutwell's  hole  in 
the  sky,  495 ;  power  of  removal,  496 
et  seq.]  charge  not  suitable  for  judi 
cial  cognizance,  498  et  seq.;  on  article 
X,  500;  a  delightful  turn,  id.;  close 
of  on  Andrew  Johnson,  501. 

Farnsworth,  John  F.,  rep.  from  111., 
remark  of  on  the  Johnson-Grant  cor 
respondence,  335  ;  remarks  of  in  de 
bate  on  final  impeachment,  360;  his 
abuse  of  President,  363. 

i  Farragut,  Admiral,  accompanies  Presi 
dent  on  tour,  114. 

Fenton,  Gov.,  his  chilling  reception  of 
the  President,  115. 

|  Ferry,  Thomas  W.,  rep.  from  Mich., 
takes  notes  of  encounter  between 
Stanton  and  Thomas,  354 ;  witness 
on  trial,  418. 

!  Fessenden,  William  P.,  sen.  from  Me., 
culls  flowers  from  Sumner's  speech, 
60 ;  urges  Morrill  to  vote  in  Stock 
ton's  case,  74,  75 ;  votes  against  Col 
orado  twice,  90  ;  not  voting  on  second 
Nebraska  and  Colorado  bills,  165 ; 
candidate  of  conservatives  for  pres. 
pro  tern.,  character  of,  175-6  ;  votes 
to  sustain  veto  of  Colorado  bill,  179  ; 


636 


INDEX 


votes  for  non-concurrence  in  suspen 
sion  of  Stautoh,  321 ;  not  voting  on 
resolution  condemning  his  removal, 
349  ;  reported  favorable  to  President, 
520 ;  begs  for  time  for  Grimes,  551 ; 
his  vote  of  "Not  Guilty,"  551;  re 
mark  of  on  right  of  Arkansas  sena 
tors  to  sit  in  court  of  impeachment, 
562  ;  extract  from  opinion  of,  586. 

Fillmore,  Ex-President,  welcomes 
President,  115. 

Florida,  18. 

Foot,  Solomon,  sen.  from  Vt.,  absent 
from  illness,  63  ;  dying,  72  ;  dies,  80. 

Foster,  LaFayette  S.,  sen.  from  Conn., 
president  pro  tern,  of  senate,  49  ;  fa 
vor's  Stockton's  title,  73  ;  pairs  with 
Morrill,  78;  votes  against  Colorado, 
90  ;  votes  against  Nebraska  and  Col 
orado,  165;  character  of  as  presiding 
officer,  174-5 ;  Wade  succeeds,  177-9 ; 
votes  to  sustain  Colorado  veto,  179. 

Fowler,  Joseph  F.,  sworn  in  as  sen. 
from  Tenn.,  103 ;  announces  vic 
tory  of  negro  suffrage  in  Tenn., 
173 ;  non-concurs  in  Stanton's  sus 
pension,  321 ;  claimed  by  both  sides, 
516 ;  almost  given  over,  521 ;  his 
career,  534 ;  publication  of  Kelley's 
report  of  his  remarks  on  impeach 
ment,  535  ;  his  denial,  id.;  attempt 
to  poll  his  vote,  536 ;  his  vindication, 
id.;  his  vote  of  "  Not  Guilty,"  551 ; 
his  telegram  concerning  his  vote,  572. 

Freedman's  Bureau,  bill  enlarging 
powers  of,  42 ;  passes  Senate  and 
House,  45  ;  vetoed,  47  ;  veto  sustained 
in  Senate,  49  ;  second  bill  passed,  ve 
toed  and  passed  over  veto,  96. 

Frelinghuysen,  Fred.  T.,  appointed 
to  fill  vacancy  caused  by  death  of 
Wright  as  sen.  from  N.  J.,  158. 

Garfield,  James  A.,  rep.  from  Ohio,  re 
mark  of  on  Nebraska  proviso,  166; 


on  failure  of  first  impeachment,  314  ; 
anxious  to  avoid  delay  but  quieted 
by  Butler,  386;  countersigns  But 
ler's  Alta  Vela  letter,  398. 

Gayle,  George  W.,  pardon  of,  305. 

Georgia,  18  ;  bill  to  admit  reported  to 
House,  521. 

Grant,  Ulysses  S.,  his  report  on  condi 
tion  of  South,  37 ;  stands  at  right 
hand  of  President  at  reception  of 
committee  of  Phila.  Conv.,  113;  ac 
companies  President  on  tour,  114; 
refuses  to  go  to  Mexico,  129-30; 
testimony  before  Imp.  Com.,  238; 
characterizes  Stanton,  266 ;  his  letter 
to  President  remonstrating  against 
removal  of  Stanton  and  Sheridan, 
272 ;  accepts  appointment  of  Sec.  of 
War  ad  interim  in  place  of  Stanton, 
and  letter  of,  to  latter,  283 ;  interview 
with  President  on  the  suspension, 
284-5 ;  letter  against  Sheridan's  trans 
fer,  285-6 ;  looked  to  as  presidential 
candidate,  289,  315 ;  his  understand 
ing  of  his  promise  to  President  and 
action  thereon,  318 ;  vacates  War 
Office,  323  ;  colloquy  with  President 
in  cabinet,  324 ;  the  first  hostile 
move  of,  327  ;  first  letter  of,  to  Presi 
dent  in  quarrel,  328 ;  second,  329 ; 
his  third,  335  ;  present  at  first  inter 
view  between  Stanton  and  Thomas, 
345 ;  of  opinion  that  President  ought 
to  be  removed,  532 ;  inaugurated 
President,  612 ;  his  inaugural  ad 
dress,  614. 

Greeley,  Horace,  bail  for  J.  Davis,  233  ; 
before  Imp.  Com.,  233. 

Groesbeck,  William  S.,  President's 
counsel  on  trial  in  place  of  Black, 
400;  career  and  character  of,  471  ;  his 
argument,  exordium,  472;  three  de 
partments  of  government  independ 
ent,  473 ;  right  of  President  to  refuse 
to  execute  unconstitutional  law,  474  ; 


INDEX 


637 


constitutional  interpretation,  475-7 ; 
his  treatment  of  article  X,  477  ;  per 
oration,  478. 

Grimes,  James  W.,  sen.  from  la.,  votes 
twice  against  Colorado,  90 ;  votes 
against  Nebraska  and  Colorado  bills, 
165 ;  votes  to  sustain  veto  of  latter, 
179  ;  not  voting  on  resolution  censur 
ing  Stanton's  removal,  349  ;  reported 
favorable  to  President,  520;  meets 
President  at  Reverdy  Johnson's 
house,  546;  borne  into  chamber  to 
vote,  551;  votes  "Not  Guilty,"  552. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  opinions  of  on 
power  of  removal  cited,  186. 

Hancock,  Winfield  S.,  appointed  in 
place  of  Sheridan,  286;  celebrated 
order  of,  287  ;  transferred  to  new 
military  division  of  the  Atlantic, 
342. 

Harlan,  James,  sec.  of  int.,  12,  16,  18, 
59 ;  reticent  on  Congress  reconstruc 
tion  plan,  94;  resigns,  108. 

Harris,  Ira,  sen.  from  N.  Y.,  favors 
Stockton's  title,  73  ;  votes  against 
Colorado  twice,  90  ;  votes  to  sustain 
veto,  179  ;  succeeded  by  Conkling, 
207. 

Henderson,  John  B.,  sen.  from  Mo.,  49 ; 
votes  in  favor  of  Stockton,  73  ;  only 
Republican  to  vote  against  section  to 
army  bill,  202  ;  paired  in  favor  of 
non-concurrence  in  Stanton's  sus 
pension,  321  ;  not  voting  on  resolu 
tion  censuring  his  removal,  349 ; 
claimed  by  both  sides,  516 ;  speaks 
against  first  eight  articles,  521 ;  dines 
with  Chase,  521,  524 ;  career  of,  522 ; 
attack  on  him  "by  rep.  from  Mo., 
524-5 ;  proposes  to  resign,  id.;  their 
letter  to  him,  526  ;  their  second  inter 
view,  id.;  Fox's  telegram,  528  ;  visit 
of  S.  S.  Cox,  telegram  in  reply,  final 
letter,  id.;  votes  "  Not  Guilty,"  552 ; 


moves  court  adjourn  to  July  1st,  554  ; 
testifies  before  House  com.  of  investi 
gation,  568 ;  refuses  to  go  before  man 
agers  and  lays  his  correspondence  be 
fore  Senate,  id.;  statement  of  as  to 
his  vote  on  trial,  573. 

Hendricks,  Thomas  F.,  sen.  from  Ind., 
argument  of  on  legality  of  Stockton's 
election,  71;  on  the  pair  of  Morrill 
with  Wright,  75,  76;  inquires  the 
reason  of  new  Colorado  bill,  159  :  re 
marks  of  on  alteration  of  Colorado 
bill,  172-3;  protests  against  Wade 
swearing  in  as  member  of  court  of 
impeachment,  390. 

Hoffman,  John  T.,  mayor  of  N.  Y., 
welcomes  Johnson,  114. 

Impeachment,  the  first  resolution  of" 
fered,  152 ;  first  passed  House  in 
structing  committee  to  investigate, 
153 ;  testimony  before  of  Baker, 
155-6 ;  of  others,  156-7 ;  reports  of 
majority  and  minority,  157  ;  passed 
over  to  40th  Cong.,  157-8  ;  testimony 
before,  221-2;  of  Baker  concerning 
Mrs.  Harris  and  Booth's  diary,  234  ,' 
of  reporters  concerning  President's 
tour,  235  ;  first  vote  on  of  committee, 
235 ;  case  reopened,  235 ;  testimony 
of  Anna  Surrat,  236;  of  Stanley  Mat 
thews,  236  ;  of  Speed,  237  ;  Booth's 
letter  to  an  actor,  237  ;  Grant's  testi 
mony,  238;  first  decision  reversed, 
290  ;  Conover's  mem.  produced,  292  ; 
three  reports  of  committee  analyzed, 
293  et  seq.;  defeat  of,  313;  second  at 
tempt  at,  327  ;  Johnson-Grant  corre 
spondence  referred,  332  ;  debate  on  in 
committee  and  attempt  voted  down, 
335-6 ;  Covode  introduces  resolution 
for  third,  346 ;  reported  by  committee 
and  debate  thereon,  359  et  seq.;  vote 
on,  373  ;  senate  notified,  376 ;  debate 
in  senate  on  rules,  377 ;  articles  re- 


638 


INDEX 

/ 


ported  to  House,  379 ;  revised  version 
reported, '382  ;  Jenckes's  article  voted 
down,  383 ;  Butler's  article  voted 
down,  384;  seven  managers  selected, 
385;  Butler's  article  adopted,  386 1 
article  XI  added,  386,  388;  articles 
presented  to  Senate,  389  ;  senate  or 
ganized  as  a  court,  id.;  President 
summoned,  393 ;  Senate  assumes  ap 
pearance  of  court  and  President 
called,  395 ;  his  counsel  appear, 
granted  ten  days  to  answer,  397; 
answer  filed,  400  ;  day  fixed  for  trial, 
402. 

Ingersoll,  Ebon  C.,  rep.  from  111.;  re 
mark  of  in  debate  on  final  impeach 
ment,  360. 

Jenckes,  Thomas  A.,  rep.  from  E.  I., 
his  article  of  impeachment,  382 
voted  down,  383. 

Johnson,  Andrew,  in  Senate,  2;  Mil. 
Gov.  of  Tenn.,  id.;  accedes  to  Presi 
dency,  under  cloud,  5 ;  his  letter  to 
Montgomery  Blair,  9 ;  his  plan  of  re 
construction  for  N.  C.,  16;  his  first 
message,  29 ;  interviews  with  Dixon, 
with  colored  delegation,  with  com 
mittee  of  legislature  of  Va.,  45,  46 ; 
first  veto,  47 ;  Feb.  22d  speech,  51 ; 
abuse  of,  in  House,  62 ;  extract  from 
N.  Y.  World  on,  63;  vetoes  civil 
rights  bill,  80;  characteristic  utter 
ance  in  Senate,  1861,  87  ;  issues  proc 
lamation  of  peace,  id.;  words  to 
soldiers  and  sailors,  id.,  88 ;  begins  to 
turn  out  officers,  88 ;  vetoes  Colorado 
bill,  91 ;  attitude  towards  reconstruc 
tion  plan  of  joint-corn.,  93;  vetoes 
second  Freedmen's  Bureau  bill,  96 ; 
intends  to  execute  civil  rights  bill, 
id.;  message  of,  on  admission  of  Tenn. 
quoted,  102  ;  his  speech  in  the  East 
Room  to  the  Committee  of  the  Phil. 
Con v.,  112-3;  his  tour  "round  the 


circle,  "  113;  at  Phil.,  114;  at  New 
York,  id.;  at  Albany  and  Buffalo, 
115;  speech  at  Cleveland,  115-118; 
speech  at  St.  Louis,  118-123  ;  riot  at 
1  Indianapolis  on  his  return,  123 ; 
speeches  injured  him,  124;  injustice 
of  this,  125 ;  effort  to  send  Grant  to 
Mexico,  129 ;  affair  of  Baltimore 
Police  Comrs.,  130-131 ;  ignores  act 
repealing  section  giving  Pres.  power 
to  proclaim  amnesty,  136;  annual 
message  of  Dec.  1866,  148;  veto  of 
Dist.  Col.  negro  suffrage  bill,  150; 
extracts  from  message,  151 ;  resolu 
tions  to  impeach,  152,  153 ;  second 
veto  of  Colorado  bill,  169-171 ;  vetoes 
Tenure  bill  by  advice  of  Cabinet  in 
cluding  Stanton,  202 ;  signs  Army 
bill  with  protest  against  section  de 
priving  him  of  his  functions  as  corn- 
man  der-in-chief,  202  ;  vetoes  main 
Reconstruction  bill,  203;  extracts 
from  message,  205-7 ;  vetoes  supple 
mentary  bill,  216  ;  appoints  military 
commanders,  223  ;  sends  instructions, 
224 ;  vetoes  second  supplementary 
bill,  extracts  from  message,  226  ;  re 
solves  to  be  com. -in-chief,  239  et  seq.\ 
resolves  to  get  rid  of  Stanton,  272 ; 
sends  for  record  of  assassins'  trial,  274; 
discovers  petition,  275  ;  note  to  Stan- 
ton  to  resign,  277 ;  suspends  Stanton 
and  appoints  Grant  ad  interim,  283; 
understanding  with,  285 ;  removes 
Sheridan  and  appoints  Hancock,  286 ; 
speech  on  elections  of  1867,  289  ;  an 
nual  message  of  1867,  309 ;  extracts, 
310 ;  sends  to  Senate  reasons  for  Stan- 
ton's  suspension,  314 ;  recommends 
thanks  to  Hancock,  315 ;  condemned 
by  House  for  removing  Sheiidan, 
316;  his  understanding  of  Grant's 
promise,  320;  colloquy  with  Grant, 
324 ;  gives  Grant  instructions  to  obey 
no  orders  of  Stanton,  326 ;  first  letter 


INDEX 


639 


of,  in  quarrel  with  Grant,  329 ;  his 
skill  in  epistolary  correspondence, 
329 ;  second  letter,  332 ;  with  letters 
of  live  cabinet  officers,  334  ;  prepares 
to  remove  Stanton,  339  ;  offers  post  to 
Gen.  Sherman,  340-1 ;  creates  mili 
tary  division  of  Atlantic  with  Gen. 
Sherman  in  command  and  nominates 
him  brevet  general ;  on  his  declina 
tion  nominates  Thomas,  342;  removes 
Stanton  and  appoints  Lorenzo  Thom 
as  ad  interim,  344  ;  informs  Cabinet 
and  Senate,  346  ;  sends  Ewing's  nomi 
nation  to  Senate,  356 ;  has  interview 
with  Emory,  357 ;  protests  against 
action  of  Senate  condemnatory  of 
his  removal  of  Stanton  (extract), 
374-5 ;  impeached,  373,  376 ;  attends 
Chase's  reception,  389  ;  is  summoned, 
393 ;  vetoes  bill  cutting  off  right  of 
appeal  in  McCardle  case,  402 ;  trial 
of,  404 ;  his  telegrams  to  Pro.  Gov. 
Parsons  put  in  evidence,  419;  his 
speeches  put  in  evidence,  419 ;  charge 
of  intemperance  exploded,  420;  de 
nunciation  of,  by  Boutwell,  465-7  ; 
eulogy  upon,  by  Nelson,  468-9,  470 ; 
by  Groesbeck,  478  ;  denunciation  of, 
by  Williams,  484-5  ;  eulogy  upon,  by 
Evarts,  501 ;  by  Stanbury,  503-5 ;  his 
main  offence  stated  by  Bingham,  509, 
512 ;  meets  Grimes,  546 ;  nominates 
Schofield  sec.  of  war,  548 ;  acquitted 
on  Art.  XI,  554;  his  demeanor  dur 
ing  trial,  555 ;  indifferent  to  result, 
556;  his  probable  course  in  case  of 
conviction,  557 ;  logical  candidate  for 
President,  600;  his  letter  to  New 
York  citizens,  601 ;  receives  65  votes, 
602 ;  his  fourth  annual  message  stirs 
up  both  Houses,  603 ;  his  plan  for 
extinguishing  national  debt,  605  ;  his 
proposed  constitutional  amendment, 
607  ;  his  proclamation  of  universal 
amnesty,  608;  his  isolation,  611 ;  ab 


sent  from  Grant's  inauguration,  612  ; 
his  "Farewell  Address,"  614;  his 
fight  for  the  Senate,  615  ;  his  peculiar 
position,  617;  defeated  by  one  vote, 
619;  defeated  for  representative  at 
large,  621 ;  elected  U.  S.  Senate,  622; 
sworn  in,  623 ;  triumph  of  his  policy, 
625 ;  his  speech  at  special  session, 
626 ;  his  death  and  burial,  628. 

Johnson-Grant  Correspondence,  The, 
337;  remarks  of  Buckalew  on,  338; 
two  letters  of  introduced  in  evidence, 
418 ;  letters  of  cabinet  excluded,  419. 

Johnson,  Reverdy,  sen.  from  Md.,  re 
mark  of  on  ineligibility  clause  of 
14th  Amd.,  95 ;  presents  committee  of 
seventy  to  President,  112;  argument 
of  on  tenure  of  office  bill,  186 ;  re 
marks  of  on  Sumner's  abuse  of  Presi 
dent,  191 ;  on  tenure  proviso,  194 ; 
urges  President  to  nominate  Gov.  Cox 
sec.  of  war,  322  ;  brings  about  meet 
ing  between  Grimes  and  President, 
546;  announces  Grimes  at  final  vot 
ing,  551. 

Julian,  George  W.,  rep.  from  Ind.,  re 
marks  of  in  debate  on  final  impeach 
ment,  362 ;  interview  with  Vinnie 
Ream,  540. 

Karsner,  George  W.,  witness  before 
managers,  394 ;  before  Senate,  418. 

Kelley,  William  D.,  rep.  from  Pa.,  one 
of  Stanton's  body-guard,  353 ;  re 
marks  of  on  final  impeachment,  361 ; 
his  report  of  Fowler's  remarks  on 
impeachment,  535. 

Lane,  James  H.,  sen.  from  Kan.,  43; 
votes  to  overrule  veto  of  Fr.  Bur.  bill, 
49;  mentioned,  63 ;  advocates  bill  to 
admit  Colorado,  65  ;  votes  for  it,  66  ; 
commits  suicide,  537. 

Lawrence,  William,  rep.  from  Ohio, 
concedes  that  attempt  to  remove 


640 


INDEX 


Stanton  is  not  within  the  tenure  law, 
366;  compiles  brief  for  Butler,  409. 

Legate,  witness  before  managers  against 
Ross  implicates  Pomeroy,  569. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  his  plan  of  recon 
struction,  2,  3  ;  speech  of  llth  April, 
1865,  4  ;  last  meeting  of  cabinet,  11 ; 
letter  of  to  Gov.  Hahn,  21. 

Loan,  Benj.  F.,  rep.  from  Mo.,  offers 
first  resolution  to  impeach,  152. 

Logan,  John  A.,  rep.  from  111.,  remark 
of  on  Jeff.  Davis,  232 ;  abuses  Presi 
dent,  363 ;  selected  manager,  385  ; 
counter-signs  Butler's  Alta  Vela  let 
ter,  398 ;  files  his  argument  on  trial, 
448 ;  remark  of  on  date  of  Butler  let 
ter,  487 ;  reports  that  Grant  wants 
Johnson  out,  532;  at  Chicago  con 
vention,  571 ;  vouches  for  Grant,  572. 

Louisiana,  2,  3,  10 ;  bill  to  admit  re 
ported  to  House,  521. 

Madison,  James,  opinions  of  on  power 
of  removal  cited,  188, 189  ;  his  history 
of  impeachment  clause  in  constitu 
tion,  297. 

Managers,  Board  of,  selected  by  House, 
385 ;  examine  Karsner  and  Thomas, 
394 ;  organize  an  inquisition  against 
doubtful  senators,  531 ;  authorized  by 
House  to  investigate,  563 ;  effort  of 
minority  to  obtain  representation 
voted  down,  564 ;  inaugurate  reign 
of  terror,  567 ;  imprison  Woolley  in 
Miss  Ream's  studio,  561 ;  summon 
Henderson,  568 ;  meet  their  '  Con- 
over  '  in  Legate,  569 ;  investigation 
kept  on  foot  after  trial ;  Butler  only 
makes  report ;  no  action  on,  571. 

Matthews,  Stanley,  testifies  to  a  remark 
of  Vice  President  Johnson,  237. 

McCardle,  Case,  history  of,  403,  note. 

McCreery,  Thomas  C.,  sen.  from  Ky., 
moves  the  court  of  impeachment  ad 
journ  without  day,  554. 


McDougall,  James  A.,  sen.  from  Cal., 
corrects  Sumner  on  Hoyle,  72. 

McCulloch,  Hugh,  sec.  of  Treas.,  16; 
sustains  President,  94  ;  letter  of  cor 
roboratory  of  President  vs.  Grant,  334. 

Merrick,  Richard  T.,  counsel  for  John 
H.  Surratt,  his  statement  concerning 
petition  for  mercy,  273  ;  employed  to 
defend  Thomas,  376 ;  witness  on  trial, 
441. 

Methodist  Church,  conference  of  prays 
that  senators  stand  firm  for  Presi 
dent's  conviction,  530;  the  African 
branch  follows  suit,  531. 

Mississippi,  18,  19,  20,  21. 

Moorhead,  James  K.,  rep.  from  Pa., 
one  of  Stanton's  body-guard  takes 
notes,  354 ;  counter-signs  Butler's 
Alta  Vela  letter,  399 ;  sworn  on  trial, 
417. 

Morgan,  Edwin  D.,  sen.  from  N.  Y., 
votes  to  sustain  first  veto,  49 ;  men 
tioned,  63";  in  favor  of  Stockton's 
title,  73 ;  votes  to  override  veto  of 
Civil  Rights  Bill,  82 ;  votes  against 
Colorado,  90  ;  votes  against  Nebraska 
and  Colorado  again,  165  ;  votes  to  sus 
tain  veto  of  Colorado  bill,  179. 

Morrill,  Lot  M.,  sen.  from  Me.,  writes 
to  Stockton  about  pair  with  Wright, 
approves  Stockton's  telegram,  72 ; 
breaks  his  pair,  74;  pairs  with  Fos 
ter,  78. 

Morton,  Oliver  P.,  sen.  from  Ind.,  re 
mark  of  on  repeal  of  tenure  act, 
610  ;  at  obsequies  of  Johnson,  624. 

Nebraska,  territory  of,  bill  to  admit 
pressed  forward,  opposed  by  Sumner, 
merits  of,  105 ;  passes  Senate  and 
House  but  fails  to  become  a  law,  106  ; 
Wade  moves  another  bill,  158 ;  de 
bate  on,  160-4;  Edmunds  proviso, 
164  ;  passes  Senate,  id.;  House  rejects 
proviso,  166  ;  Boutwell's  amendment 


INDEX 


641 


accepted  by  House,  167  ;  and  Senate, 
169  ;  veto,  169  ;  passes  over  veto,  173  ; 
admitted,  174. 

Nelson,  Samuel,  associate  justice  of  U. 
S.  Sup.  Ct.,  administersoath  to  Chase, 
390. 

Nelson,  Thomas  A.  R.,  counsel  for  the 
President  on  trial,  395 ;  his  final  ar 
gument,  467;  characterizes  President, 
468  ;  gives  account  of  Alta  Vela  mat 
ter,  470 ;  his  rejoinder  to  Butler,  486  ; 
files  Butler's  letter  and  addenda, 
487 ;  reply  of  as  to  intent  to  chal 
lenge,  487 ;  congratulates  President 
on  acquittal,  555. 

Nesmith,  James  W.,  sen.  from  Oregon, 
49. 

New  Orleans  riot,  110;  suppression  of 
Baird  telegram  by  Stanton,  110. 

North  Carolina,  11  ;  plan  of  recon 
struction  of,  16 ;  bill  to  admit  re 
ported  to  House,  521 . 

Norton,  Daniel  S.,  sen.  from  Minn., 
23  ;  63. 

Nye,  James  W.,  sen.  from  Nev.,  urges 
Morrill  to  vote  in  Stockton's  case, 
74 ;  blurts  out  motive  for  opposing 
delay,  76 ;  remark  of  on  President's 
message,  217  ;  warns  Senate  against 
Supreme  Court,  218 ;  would  hang 
Jeff.  Davis,  232 ;  favors  passing 
Arkansas  Bill,  561. 

O'Conor,  Charles,  counsel  for  Jeff. 
Davis,  232. 

Ord,  Edward  O.  C.,  commands  in 
fourth  District,  223 ;  relieved  by  Mc 
Dowell,  286. 

Orr,  James  L.,  heads  South  Carolina 
delegation  in  Phila.  Con.,  112. 

Patterson,  David  T.,  credentials  as 
'sen.  from  Tenn.  presented,  103  ;  son- 
in-law  of  President,  career  of  as 
a  Union  man,  103-4;  opposition  of 


Sumner,  104 ;  report  of  committee  in 
favor  of,  106;  sworn  in,  107. 

Perrin,  Edwin  O.,  witness  on  trial,  441 . 

Pickering,  Timothy,  his  removal  by 
President  Adams  proved  on  trial, 
421. 

Pierpont,  Francis,  gov.  of  Va.,  13. 

Pierrepont,  Edwards,  counsel  for  U. 
S.,  on  Surratt  trial,  his  statments  as 
to  petition  for  mercy,  274,  276. 

Pile,  William  A.,  rep.  from  Mo.,  car 
ries  warrant  for  arrest  of  Thomas  to 
clerk  and  marshal,  352  ;  introduces 
bill  to  abolish  office  of  Adj. -Gen.,  358. 

Poland,  Luke  P.,  sen.  from  Vt.,  favors 
Stockton's  title,  73,  77 ;  votes  against 
admission  of  Colorado,  90. 

Pomeroy,  Samuel  C.,  sen.  from  Kan., 
delegated  by  caucus  to  force  Ross 
to  speak,  540-1 ;  first  attack,  541 ; 
second,  542,  third,  543;  threatens 
Ross,  543 ;  implicated  by  Legate. 
569 ;  his  letter  to  Legate,  570 ;  Thur- 
low  Weed's  statement  about,  id.;  he 
and  Sumner  the  only  two  senators 
finding  President  guilty  on  all  the 
articles,  580. 

Pope,  John,  commands  in  third  dis' 
trict;  223 ;  relieved  by  Meade,  289. 

Randall,  Alex.  W.,  succeeds  as  Post 
master-General,  99,  108  ;  calls  Phila. 
conv.  to  order,  112;  accompanies 
President  on  tour,  114;  letter  of  cor- 
robatory  of  President  vs.  Grant,  334 ; 
witness  on  trial,  446. 

Randall,  Samuel  J.,  rep.  from  Pa.,  re 
mark  of  on  impeachment,  228. 

Raymond,  Henry  J.,  rep.  from  N.  Y., 
speech  of,  40 ;  reads  address  to  peo 
ple  at  Phila.  conv.,  112;  remark  of 
on  Nebraska  bill,  168. 

Ream,  Vinnie,  modeling  statue  of  Lin 
coln,  539  ;  suspected  of  using  her  in 
fluence  with  Ross,  540 ;  denies  Ross 


642 


INDEX 


to  Sickles,  544 ;  her  protest  against 
being  turned  out  of  studio,  567. 

Reconstruction.  Lincoln's  plan,  2,3; 
theories  of,  6,  7 ;  Stevens',  8  ;  Sum- 
ner's,  8-9;  plan  of  joint-committee,  92; 
supplementary  bills  of,  not  passed,96. 

Reconstruction  Acts.  Main  act  in 
House,  199 ;  substitute  of  Senate, 
200 ;  amendment  of  House,  201 ; 
passed  both  Houses,  id. ;  vetoed, 
message  written  by  Black,  203; 
passed  over  veto,  207;  first  supple 
mentary  act  passed,  212 ;  second 
passed,  225. 

Removals  from  office,  108. 

Riddle,  A.  G.,  counsel  for  U.  S.f  on 
Surratt  trial,  writes  to  President  in 
favor  of  Conover's  pardon,  279. 

Rogers,  Andrew  J.,  rep.  from  N.  J., 
recommends  Conover's  pardon,  154. 

Ross,  Edmund  G.,  sen.  from  Kan.,  not 
voting  on  non-concurrence  in  Stan- 
ton's  suspension,  321 ;  votes  for  reso 
lution  condemning  removal,  349 ; 
claimed  by  both  sides,  516;  still 
silent,  521 ;  career  of,  537 ;  remark 
of,  to  Sumner,  538 ;  confession  of,  to 
Senate,  id. ;  his  behavior  under  fire, 
539 ;  acquaintances  of,  id. ;  visits 
Miss  Ream's  studio,  id. ;  Pomeroy's 
attempts  to  force  him  to  speak,  541 ; 
defines  his  position,  542 ;  second  at 
tempt,  543;  the  Anthony  telegram, 
543;  Sickles'  attempt,  544;  Pome 
roy's  threat,  id. ;  his  reply  to  An 
thony  telegram,  id. ;  rejoinder,  545  ; 
casts  decisive  vote  on  article  XI, 
552-3;  set  of  managers  upon  him, 
573 ;  his  inscrutability,  574 ;  votes 
with  the  impeachers  on  motions,  575 ; 
votes  "Not  Guilty"  on  second  and 
third  articles,  576. 

Schenck,  Robert  C.,  rep.  from  Ohio, 
remark  of  on  bill  fixing  meeting  of 


Congress  on  March  4th,  149;  on  im 
peachment,  228;  aids  J.  F.  Wilson 
in  the  McCardle  case  trick,  403  n.; 
chairman  of  Union  Cong.  Com.,  521  ; 
sends  out  telegrams  to  coerce  waver 
ing  senators,  530. 

[  Schofield,  John  M.:  commands  in  Va., 
223;  Grant's  statement  to  him,  n.  to 
272,  326  ;  interview  with  Evarts  con 
cerning  his  nomination  as  sec.  of  war, 
547 ;  nominated,  548. 

Scovell,  James  M.,  president  of  N.  J. 
senate,  79;  blocks  election  of  suc 
cessor  to  Stockton,  id. ;  reconverted, 
158. 

Senate,  U.  S.,  two  methods  of  recruit 
ing  of,  64;  action  of  on  Stanton's 
removal,  347  ;  votes  on,  349,  350  n. 

Seward,  William  H.,  sec.  of  state,  7, 
16;  addresses  meeting  in  N.  Y.,  on 
Feb.  22,  50 ;  mentioned,  59  ;  sustains 
President,  93 ;  accompanies  him  on 
tour,  114  ;  in  Governor's  Room,  City 
Hall,  N.  Y.,  114-5  ;  writes  veto  mes 
sage  on  Tenure  bill,  203 ;  testimony 
of  as  to  Jeff.  Davis,  234  ;  as  to  Stan- 
ton, 253;  letter  corroboratory  of  Presi 
dent  vs.  Grant,  334. 

Sharkey,  William  M.,  telegram  of 
Johnson  to,  20. 

Shea,  George,  counsel  for  Jeff.  Davis, 
232. 

Sheridan,  Philip  H.,  in  command  of 
fifth  district,  223;  remark  of  on 
Atty-Gen.'s  opinion,  224  ;  his  course 
against  President,  272  ;  removed,  286. 

Sherman,  John,  sen.  from  Ohio,  speech 
of  for  the  President,  54 ;  remarks  of 
in  favor  of  exception  of  cabinet  offi 
cers  from  Tenure  bill,  194-5 ;  remarks 
on  conference  report,  197,  198-9;  on 
whether  presiding  officers  can  call 
houses  together,  221 ;  on  denouncing 
the  President,  230 ;  not  voting  on 
Stanton's  suspension,  322;  nor  on 


INDEX 


643 


resolution  censuring  removal,  349 ; 
votes  guilty  on  eleventh,  second  and 
third  articles,  553, 576 ;  extracts  from 
his  opinion,  588,  589,  590;  articles 
manipulated  for  him,  591. 

Sherman,  William  T.,  convention  of 
with  Gen.  Johnston,  8;  letter  of  to 
President  on  Stanton,  325 ;  declines 
sec.-of-war-ship  and  brevet-general 
ship,  341,  342;  present  at  trial,  422; 
witness  on  trial.  439-440. 

Sickles,  Daniel  E.,  commands  in  second 
district,  223 ;  trial  of,  243 ;  super 
seded  by  Canby,  286 ;  seeks  Ross  at 
Miss  Ream's,  544. 

Speed,  James,  atty.-gen.,  16  ;  resigns, 
99,  108  ;  before  Imp.  Com.,  237. 

Sprague,  William,  sen.  from  R.  I., 
suspected  because  son-in-law  of 
Chase,  516  ;  reported  sound,  522. 

South  Carolina,  18  ;  bill  to  admit  re 
ported  to  House,  521.  » 

Staubery,  Henry,  succeeds  as  atty.- 
gen.,  99,  108;  opinions  of  on  recon 
struction  acts,  224  ;  testimony  before 
Imp.  Com.,  234;  resigns  to  be 
counsel  for  President  on  trial,  395 ; 
reads  answer  to  article  II  down  to 
IX,  400;  falls  ill,  440;  reappears, 
502 ;  opening  sentence  of  his  argu 
ment,  id.;  peroration,  503;  congrat 
ulates  President  on  acquittal,  555. 

Stanton,  Edwin  M.,  sec.  of  war,  10; 
project  of  to  reconstruct  Va.,  and  N. 
C.,  divided,  11,  12 ;  for  Va.,  13 ;  for 
N.  C.,  14;  colloguing  with  Sumner, 
Dawes  and  Colfax,  15;  negro  suf 
frage  clause,  id. ;  vote  in  Cabinet, 
16;  testimony  of  before  Imp.  Com., 
18;  mentioned,  59;  on  side  of  Presi 
dent,  94  ;  suppresses  N.  O.  telegram, 
111 ;  aids  Seward  in  writing  veto  mes 
sage  on  Tenure  bill,  203;  dictates 
section  to  Army  bill,  202  n.  ;  testi 
mony  of  as  to  Jeff.  Davis,  234  ;  char 


acter  and  career  of,  241  et  seq.  ; 
Buchanan  appoints  him  atty.-gen., 
251  ;  early  relations  with  aboli 
tionists,  245  et  seq.  ;  with  Sumner, 
248  ;  letters  to  Buchanan,  257-263  ; 
becomes  sec.  of  war,  265 ;  speech  to 
Johnson  Club,  268  ;  throws  off  mask, 
270-1  ;  refuses  to  resign,  277  ;  sus 
pended,  283  ;  reenters  war  office, 
323 ;  sends  correspondence  to  House, 
330-1  ;  receives  order  of  removal, 
345  ;  makes  affidavit  to  arrest 
Thomas,  351  ;  encounter  with 
Thomas,  354-5J;  gets  Karsner  as  wit 
ness,  394 ;  at  work  to  convict  Presi 
dent,  531 ;  relinquishes  charge,  592  ; 
orates  for  Grant,  592  ;  interview  with 
Chandler  and  Wade  on  sick  bed, 
593;  Carpenter  obtains  his  appoint 
ment  as  associate  justice,  593-4  ;  his 
statement  to  Sumner,  id.;  remarks 
of  Carpenter  and  Black,  595. 
Stevens,  Thaddeus,  rep.  fcom  Pa., 
calls  Johnson  an  alien,  3 ;  his  theory 
of  state  suicide,  8 ;  remarks  of,  11, 
23,  32,  50 ;  character  of,  24  ;  speech 
abusing  Present,  62-3;  tilt  with 
Blaine,  217;  remarks  of  on  impeach 
ment,  223,  227,  228 ;  on  Jeff.  Davis, 
232;  on  second  attempt  to  impeach, 
336-7 ;  presents  report  on  final  im 
peachment,  359  ;  remarks  of,  closing 
the  debate,  372 ;  appointed  on  com 
mittee  to  notify  Senate,  374  ;  speech 
of  on  offering  his  own  article,  381 ; 
selected  as  one  of  the  managers,  385  ; 
counter-signs  Butler's  Alta  Vela  let 
ter,  399 ;  remark  of  on  Groesbecfe's 
peroration,  481 ;  his  final  argument, 
481 ;  threatens  senators,  483 ;  re 
mark  of  on  bill  to  admit  Arkansas, 
518 ;  reports  bill  to  admit  N.  C.,  S. 
C.,  La.,  Geo.,  and  Ala.,  521 ;  inco 
herent  remarks  of,  565  ;  valedictory 
of,  597  ;  his  death  and  will,  599. 


644 


INDEX 


Stewart,  William  M.,  sen.  from  Nev.,  j 
speech   of  for  President,   38;    votes  j 
to  sustain  first  veto,  49;  mentioned,  \ 
63 ;    introduces  bill    to  admit    Col-  | 
orado,   65;    in    favor  of   Stockton's 
title,  73  ;  disappears  on  vote,  78,  79 ; 
last  effort  at  independence,  80. 

Stockton,  John  P.,  sen.  from  N.  J., 
takes  his  seat,  66;  report  of  Jud.  < 
Com.  in  favor  of,  id.,  70;  protest 
against,  67;  election  of,  67-9;  de 
bate  on,  70-2;  first  vote  on,  73; 
second,  id.;  disgraceful  scene,  74; 
votes  himself,  id.;  debate  on,  75  ; 
withdraws  vote,  76  ;  pleas  for  delay, 
76,  77,  78  ;  last  speech  of,  78 ;  final 
vote  on  case,  79 ;  his  empty  chair, 
id.;  successor  to  elected,  158;  sent 
back,  288. 

Sumner,  Charles,  sen.  from  Mass., 
sneer  of  at  Va.  legislature,  1 ;  de 
feats  admission  of  Ark.  and  La.,  4; 

•  his  solution  of  reconstruction  prob 
lem,  8 ;  consults  Stanton  in  private, 
15 ;  character  of,  32 ;  speech  of  in 
Mass.  Conv.,  36 ;  remarks  of  at  obse 
quies  of  Collamer,  36 ;  on  President's 
message,  37 ;  speech  of  against  first 
form  of  14th  A md.,  46;  second  speech 
against,  60  ;  opposes  admission 
of  Colorado,  65 ;  quotes  Hoyle  in 
Stockton  case,  71  ;  urges  Morrill  to 
vote,  74;  argues  against  Stockton's 
right  to  vote,  75 ;  opposes  all  delay, 
76,  77 ;  opposes  Colorado  again,  89; 
offers  amendment  to  bill  supple 
mentary  to  14th  Amd.,  96;  opposes 
admission  of  Patterson,  104 ;  opposes 
Nebraska  bill,  105,  160 ;  remarks  of 
on  Dist.  Col.  negro  suffrage  bill,  150 ; 
votes  for  Nebraska  and  Colorado 
bills,  165 ;  moves  amendment  to 
Tenure  bill,  189  ;  abuse  of  President, 
190-1,  219,  229;  forensic  habit, 
221  ;  claims  right  to  denounce 


President,  229;  testimony  of  con 
cerning  Stanton,  248,  254  ;  denounces 
message,  311 ;  sends  message  to  Stan- 
ton,  347 ;  sensitive  about  doing  busi 
ness  with  President,  394 ;  objects  to 
credentials  of  Yickers,  id.;  denies 
right  of  chief  justice  to  vote,  417  ; 
his  resolution  to  admit  all  testimony, 
440 ;  not  voting  on  admission  of 
cabinet  testimony,  446 ;  his  order 
censuring  Nelson,  487  ;  his  rule  as  to 
punishment  of  President,  519  ;  testi 
fies  before  managers,  537,  538  ;  favors 
adjournment  for  the  first  time,  560  ; 
maintains  that  Arkansas  senators 
can  sit  in  court  of  impeachment,  562  ; 
remarks  of  on  investigation  of  sena 
tors,  566,  568  ;  he  alone  with  Pomeroy 
finds  President  guilty  on  every 
article,  581 ;  extracts  from  opinion, 
581,  582,  583,  584,  585,  586 ;  his  nar 
rative  of  conversation  with  Stanton 
concerning  Grant,  594  ;  his  eulogy  on 
Stevens,  600. 

Supreme  Court  of  U.  S.,  decisions  of, 
135 ;  scheme  to  deprive  it  of  power 
to  pronounce  act  of  Congress  invalid, 
136;  act  cutting  off  right  of  appeal 
to,  402. 

Surratt,  John  H.,  fled,  143  ;  in  Liver 
pool,  London,  Paris,  Rome,  143-4 ; 
betrayed,  id.;  escaped,  145;  retaken 
and  sent  to  Washington,  146;  trial, 

.  273,  274,  276. 

Tennessee,  2,  10;  Brownlow's  letter  to 
speaker  in  favor  of  admission  of,  44  ; 
resolution  to  admit  amended  in  Sen 
ate  and  passed,  100-1  ;  not  to  be  pre 
cedent,  102  ;  message  of  President  on, 
id. ;  members  sworn  in,  103,  107  ;  re 
deemed  by  Johnson,  616. 

Tenure-of-Office  Act.  Bill  introduced, 
183:  House  votes  to  except  cabinet 
officers,  id.  ;  passes  Senate,  193 ; 


INDEX 


G45 


House  strikes  out  exception,  194 ; 
conference  reports  proviso,  195 ;  con 
struction  of,  in  House,  196 ;  in  Sen 
ate,  196-9 ;  adopted,  199 ;  vetoed  and 
passed  over  veto,  202-3 ;  virtually  re 
pealed,  609-11. 

Texas,  18. 

Thayer,  John  M.,  takes  seat  as  senator 
from  Nebraska,  174 ;  votes  "  Guilty  " 
on  trial,  553. 

Thomas,  George  H.,  declines  nomina 
tions  for  brevet  lieut.-general  and 
brevet  general,  342. 

Thomas,  Lorenzo,  career  of,  343  ;  re 
stored  to  office,  id.  ;  addresses  his 
clerks,  344  ;  appointed  sec.  of  war  ad 
interim,  344 ;  interviews  with  Stan- 
ton  and  President,  345  ;  loose  talk  of, 
350 ;  arrest  of,  352 ;  encounter  with 
Stan ton,  354-5;  proceedings  against 
in  court  and  discharge  of,  376;  be 
fore  committee  on  articles,  379;  before 
managers,  394;  witness  on  trial,  438. 

Tipton,  Thomas  W.,  admitted  sen.  from 
Nebraska,  174;  votes  "Guilty"  on 
trial,  553. 

Trial  of  the  President,  opening  scene, 
404-7  ;  close  of  case  for  prosecution, 
421-2  ;  effect  of  first  week  of,  421 ; 
defence  opened,  422 ;  close  of  testi 
mony,  447;  length  of,  id.;  analysis 
of  arguments,  448  et  seq. ;  galleries 
cleared  at  close,  514 ;  conduct  of 
senators  and  representatives  on,  517 ; 
secret  deliberation,  519;  postpone 
ment  of  vote,  526 ;  propriety  of  im 
portuning  senators,  545-9 ;  order  of 
voting  changed,  550;  scene  at  first  vot 
ing,  551-4;  court  adjourns  ten  days, 
554 ;  reassembles,  574  ;  votes  on  sec 
ond  and  third  articles,  576;  adjourns 
sine  die,  id. ;  failure  of  impeachment 
a  fortunate  event,  576-8. 

Trumbull,  Lyman,  sen.  from  111.,  in 
troduces  Freed  men's  Bureau  and 


Civil  Rights  Bills,  42;  reports  in 
favor  of  Stockton,  66 ;  votes  for  non- 
concurrence  in  Stanton  suspension, 
321 ;  and  for  resolution  censuring  his 
removal,  349;  reported  favorable  to 
President,  520;  proposed  attack  on 
him  by  reps.,  529;  votes  "Not 
Guilty"  on  trial,  553;  extract  from 
opinion  of,  579. 

Usher,  John  P.,  sec.  of  interior,  12,  16. 

Van  Horn,  Burt,  rep.  from  N.  Y.,  one 
of  Stanton's  body-guard,  takes  notes, 
354 ;  testifies  before  committee  on  ar 
ticles,  378;  sworn  on  trial,  417. 

Van  Winkle,  Peter  G.,  sen.  from  W. 
Va.,  votes  to  sustain  first  veto,  49; 
mentioned,  63 ;  votes  to  sustain  veto 
of  Civil  Rights  bill,  82 ;  paired  in 
favor  of  nonconcurrence  in  Stanton's 
suspension,  321 ;  votes  for  resolution 
of  censure,  349  ;  doubtful  on  impeach 
ment,  516 ;  reported  against  article  I, 
520 ;  reported  favorable  to  President, 
533;  tells  Pomeroy  he  is  for  convic 
tion,  id.  n.;  votes  "  Not  Guilty  "on 
trial,  553. 

Vickers,  George,  sen.  from  Md.,  sworn 
in,  394. 

Virginia,  2,  10,  12. 

Wade,  Benjamin  F.,  remark  of  to 
Johnson  on  his  accession,  6 ;  protest 
of  against  delay  on  Civil  Rights  bill 
veto,  81 ;  calls  up  Nebraska  bill, 
105 ;  his  course  on  Nebraska  and 
Colorado  bills,  158-9 ;  strange  remark 
of  on  Colorado,  159;  tilt  with  Sum- 
ner,  160 ;  on  necessity  of  reinforce 
ments,  161-2-3;  forces  both  bills 
through,  169 ;  silent  on  trick  in  Col 
orado  bill,  172  ;  radical  candidate  for 
president  pro  tern.,  175 ;  selected  in 
!  caucus,  177  ;  final  attempt  to  get  Col 
orado  in,  177-9;  meets  Stanton,  265; 
swears  in  as  member  of  court  of  im- 


646 


INDEX 


peachment,  391 ;  impropriety  of  the 
act,  392-3;  does  not  vote  during 
taking  of  testimony,  516;  his  first 
vote,  550;  votes  "  Guilty,"  553,  576  ; 
statement  of  Stanton  to  on  Grant,  593 

Wallace,  George  W.,  Col.  witness  on 
trial,  419. 

Washburne,  Elihu  B.,  rep.  from  111., 
remark  of  on  Nebraska  proviso,  166  . 
changes  front  on  impeachment,  316 ; 
abuses  President,  363 ;  his  telegram 
to  N.  H.  rep.  conv.,  515  ;  fierce  for 
President's  conviction,  532. 

Welles,  Gideon,  sec.  of  navy,  his 
"Lincoln  and  Johnson"  cited,  12, 
16 ;  sustains  the  President,  94  ;  ac 
companies  him  on  tour,  114  ;  his  let 
ter  corroboratory  of  President  against 
Grant,  334 ;  witness  on  trial,  443 ; 
testimony  of  excluded,  445-6. 

West  Virginia  deserters,  pardon  of  de-    ; 
tailed,  305. 

Wilkeson,  Samuel,  pumps  Thomas, 
350 ;  witness  on  trial,  418. 

Willey,  Waitman  T.,  sen.  from  W. 
Va.,  votes  to  sustain  first  veto,  49; 
mentioned,  63 ;  votes  to  override  veto  ' 
of  Civil  Rights  bill,  82 ;  doubtful  on  j 
impeachment,  516 ;  reported  to  be 
against  article  I  but  for  article  II, 
520 ;  Methodist  Church  had  him  in 
view,  533 ;  votes  against  changing 
order  of  voting,  550 ;  votes  "  Guilty," 
553  ;  statement  of  as  to  construction 
of  article  XI  by  chief  justice,  572. 

Williams,  George  H.,  sen.  from  Oregon, 
argument  on  Tenure  of  Office  bill, 
186 ;  remarks  of  on  conference  report. 
196  ;  on  adjournment,  219 ;  mouth" 
piece  of  caucus  to  change  order  of 
voting  on  articles,  550,  574 ;  and  to  , 
take  recess,  to  adjourn  ten  days  and 
to  adjourn  without  day,  554,  576. 

Williams,  Thomas,  rep.  from  Pa.,  re-    ; 
marks  of  on  Tenure  bill,  182  ;  on  im 


peachment,  228  ;  selected  manager, 
385;  argument  of  on  proviso  of  Tenure 
Act,  449-450 ;  final  argument  of,  the 
most  ornate,  483  ;  and  abusive  of  the 
President,  484;  scorns  Cabinet,  id., 
extract  from,  485. 

Wilson,  Henry,  sen.  from  Mass.,  char 
acter  of,  39  ;  speech  of  on  cruelties  in 
South,  id.;  eulogy  of  Eep.  party,  57  ; 
revives  Colorado  bill,  89  ;  remarks  of, 
on  Dist.  Col.  negro  suffrage  bill,  150; 
on  Nebraska,  162  ;  testimony  of  con 
cerning  Stanton,  245-247-248  ;  moves 
resolution  censuring  removal  of 
Stanton,  348  ;  opposes  adjournment 
over  Chicago  convention,  560;  ex 
presses  intention  to  vote  for  disquali 
fication  in  his  opinion,  580 ;  swears 
in  Johnson  as  senator,  624. 

Wilson,  James  F.,  rep.  from  la.,  writes 
minority  report  on  first  impeach 
ment,  302  et.  seq, ;  replies  to  Bout- 
well,  301-3,  312  ;  selected  manager, 
385 ;  author  of  trick  in  McCardle 
case,  403  n.;  introduces  the  evidence 
on  trial,  417  ;  his  question  of  verac 
ity,  439  ;  argument  of  to  exclude  the 
cabinet  testimony,  444. 

Woodward,  George  C.,  rep.  from  Pa., 
speech  of  in  debate  on  final  impeach 
ment  extracts  from,  366-8,  370-2. 

Woolley,  Charles  W.,  imprisoned  by 
board  of  managers,  567. 

Wright,  William,  sen.  from  N.  J., 
home  ill,  64 ;  pairs  with  Morrill  on 
Stockton's  case,  72  ;  telegrams  to  and 
from,  72,  77,  79 ;  present  to  vote  on 
veto  of  civil  rights  bill,  82  ;  death  of, 
158. 

Yates,  Richard,  sen.  from  111.,  re 
marks  of  on  adjourment  and  Presi 
dent,  218 ;  his  form  of  resolution 
censuring  Stanton's  removal,  348  ; 
in  favor  of  sending  Arkansas  bill  to 
the  President,  561. 


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